THE FIERCE BRAVE GANG - IN IT TO WIN IT
by Tanith Panic
Summary: A new challenge for the Holby Mixed Infants. This story will turn a little dark later but a warning will be given at the beginning of those chapters.
1. Chapter 1

THE FIERCE BRAVE GANG – IN IT TO WIN IT

Mrs Beauchamp read out the advert as the class gasped:

"Drama Competition:

We are holding a competition at the end of April this year to find new writing and acting talent in schools. If you can write a two-act play of no more than two hours' duration and have children aged 6-10 in your class who could act it in front of adult judges, please submit your basic storyline to us by the 30th January. The theme for this play is 'A new fairy tale'. This can be an old tale with a twist or an original tale. Music may be included, but we are not specifically looking for a musical. All plays will be performed on the final week of April in front of judges, and the prize will be a four-night, five-day break in Disneyland Resort, Paris, with travel by Eurostar and accommodation in a top Disney hotel for the entire class and four teachers, plus spending money to be divided among the children as the teachers see fit."

She looked round the class, who could only be described as gobsmacked by this news.

"Well, class? Can we do it?"

Hesitant nods at first, then Noel and Cal bawled 'Yes!' with Lofty and Robyn nodding more shyly and Zax following suit.

Late that afternoon, Mrs Beauchamp read out the advert to a wide eyed Ethan, who could hardly finish the smoothie she'd made for him, for excitement.

He wanted to go to Disney so much. He'd once been kicked down a couple of steps at home because he'd naively asked his dad if they could ever go.

Next morning, talk of the competition eclipsed the new game that Noel had invented before Christmas, which had been a winner with the kids.

'Lethal Injection Man', which was a modern twist on 'Hangman'. For every clue you got wrong the person you were playing against had to draw a bit of a picture of somebody with a big syringe in their hand. Once the picture was completed you were dead and you'd lost the game. Cal and Noel had almost come to blows over it at morning playtime, because Noel had cheated and drawn two bits of syringe when Cal couldn't guess his clue.

But now Lethal Injection Man was ignored. Everybody was talking about Disney.

Even Mr Keogh: 'Robyn, if five children from one family buy tickets for a day in Disney, and four buy them for two days, how many tickets is that?"

Poor Robyn was caught out thinking of days not tickets, but Mr Keogh was very nice about it and told her she just needed to be alert in future. Robyn resolved to be A Lert.

Miss Honey, who was soft-hearted, was glad they weren't playing 'Lethal Injection Man' any more. It wasn't nice for kids to play games like that.

And Taylor, in the classy new school that mummy and daddy had moved her to, fumed because she knew that Mrs Beauchamp could put the best plays together, and she wanted Holby to lose and be made fools of now she wasn't there any more.

"You, me, Disneyland hotel, fun, fun, fun…." Teased Rita.

"We haven't even won it yet, Freeman. And it's not till at least early June when we'd go."

"A girl can dream…"

Just one thing I ought to mention. Holby Mixed Infants is a fairly exclusive school though far from being snobby, has just the one class, which moves up throughout the school until it's time for them to go to Holby Juniors. There are other kids in the class but focus is on FBG.


	2. Chapter 2

I hope nobody's offended if I use two former Casualty characters as class members soon in this story; after all they can live again in an alternative universe. Please let me know if you don't like this idea and I'll try to keep them in the background as much as possible.

A warning for violence here.

Two days later, Cal and Ethan's mum, tired of being a punchbag, cleared out while her husband was at work. She also cleared out as much as she could carry, including the emergency money that her husband had kept in an envelope. It never occurred to her that it might have been the decent thing to at least collect the boys from school and take them with her.

When Mr Knight found out what had happened, he went out and got off his face with the money he had left. Next day, despite a hangover, he went storming round to Holby Mixed Infants.

"I want to see that bitch Beauchamp. My boys aren't staying with her a moment longer."

Big Mac tried to hold him off, but a vicious punch left poor Big Mac unconscious, and Mr Knight barged up to the main doors of the school.

"Give me my boys back, you bitch, Beauchamp!"

"How did he get past Big Mac?" Miss Freeman asked, and, fearing the worst, Mr Fairhead went through the back entrance to Big Mac's hut. He called the police at once. The fortunate news was that Big Mac was already sitting up groggily. Mr Fairhead made him as comfortable as possible and then went to warn Mrs Beauchamp. But she was already storming to the door, Mr Keogh and Miss Freeman in tow. Ms Chao and Miss Honey calmed the frightened pupils. Cal and Ethan were clinging to one another, sobbing. They didn't want to go anywhere near their dad.

"Get away from this door! How dare you come here, after the bruising Dr Meyer found on your sons!"

"That second little b*stard isn't mine; he's just Cal's stepbrother. But I'll take him along anyway, knock some sense into him. Now stand aside, you cow."

Mrs Beauchamp didn't stand aside, and received a slap that sent her sprawling. Then:

"You little shit! How dare you….?"

And the tiny blonde avenger went in with her fists.

"Rita", gasped Mr Keogh in amazement, not to mention admiration, "You've knocked him out!"

Fortunately the police arrived at that precise moment.

Mr Knight was remanded in custody, for assaulting the headmistress and the security officer at Holby Mixed Infants and for beating his two children, one of whom was five years old and the other six. Mrs Beauchamp was allowed temporary custody of the boys. This was expected to last until the summer at least. Cal and Ethan slept well that night, and the next day an emergency Gang meeting was declared by Zax. They took their cash to Miss Dixon, who was more than happy to go out at lunch to buy the gifts.

"Flowers for us! Oh kids you should save your money… but they're really lovely."

A lump came to Mrs Beauchamp's throat. But it was the actual drawing of Miss Freeman as Superwoman that made the blonde teacher weep and hug Noel, who had drawn it.

Two weeks later the storyline and cast for the competition play was announced.


	3. Chapter 3

The kids sat in the assembly hall, wishing that Mrs Beauchamp would hurry up and come in. They were dying to know the storyline, which had been worked on by Mrs Beauchamp, Miss Freeman and Ms Chao together, and which of the kids would get a main part.

Then Mrs Beauchamp, looking a little flushed, followed by Miss Freeman, who looked excited, despite the fact that her left hand was still bandaged up, came on to the platform.

"Okay, kids… here's the storyline. We're going to do Sleeping Beauty."

Mrs Beauchamp didn't reprimand the kids for the groan. She'd expected it with some amusement.

"But!" she continued, "It's not the story as we know it. We're going to call it 'Thorns'."

The storyline unfolded. Corisande, a glamorous enchantress, had been in love with King Tarquin, but he'd thrown her over for another woman. In a jealous rage, Corisande had put a deadly sleeping curse on the King's newborn daughter, Lisa. She would prick her finger on a spindle and sleep a death-like sleep for a hundred years.

Later, Corisande was stricken by remorse, and knew she couldn't stop the spell altogether… but she needed a new spell to reverse the first one. A handsome Prince was needed to cut down the forest of thorns that surrounded the castle, kiss the Princess, and awaken her.

The only trouble was that Prince Sebastian, handsome though he was, was lazy and selfish and a big coward.

Cal beamed with pleasure when he was given the role of Prince Sebastian. He loved acting 'being a bad person'. Noel and Louise snagged the roles of King Tarquin and Queen Dawn. Zoe would play Princess Lisa. She was sad that it wouldn't be Max who was the Prince, but it was nice to be in the play. Robyn was stunned to hear that she would be the exotic Corisande.

Me next, thought Ethan, almost jiggling with excitement, please, me next.

So the plan was to find a poor but brave young man who would cut down the thorny wood so that Prince Sebastian could step in, kiss Lisa, and take the credit.

Corisande found a kind, attractive young man called Daniel – Danny for short – whose mother was very sick. She offered to save the old lady if Danny would cut down the trees in the wood.

I can be brave. Me, please pick me, begged Ethan inside his head.

But Max was cast as Danny and Ethan wanted to spit. He didn't because spitting was rude and bad. But he wanted to.

Corisande decided to put her two trainees, Ben and Jen, to work to help Danny on his quest. Mrs Beauchamp suggested there might even be a bit of romance between Ben and Jen. When she cast Lofty and a pretty little girl called Jess as Ben and Jen, Robyn was eaten up by jealousy. But not as much as poor Ethan.

Danny was introduced to another character, the Merry Woodman, who would have a very catchy little song to sing that would be sung at the end of the play as well. He would give Danny a special axe that would cut down trees in double time.

I can sing, thought Ethan, me, pleeeeassse, me.

A good-natured boy called Jeff was cast as the Merry Woodman. All the parts have gone, thought Ethan, and he found it hard not to cry. He would even play Danny's mother and wear a frilly hat and a shawl… but then Mrs Beauchamp said Danny's mother wasn't seen in the show.

The kids were left literally open -mouthed at the ending to the story, except Ethan, who had his head down, trying not to cry.

Corisande warns Danny that, when he comes into Princess Lisa's room to await his reward, he must not attempt to touch the Princess. But the young peasant falls in love with Lisa at first sight and, forgetting the warning, kisses her. It costs him his life; the kiss poisons him and he falls dead. Corinsande enters in tears, and covers Danny with a cloak. Sebastian enters, hardly notices poor Danny, and goes swaggering over to kiss Lisa. She awakens, very confused and upset. The story ends with her saying unhappily to herself: "But it was another man who kissed me.."

Zoe couldn't help it:

"Oh Mrs Beauchamp, that's horrid, you can't kill half of Zax!"

Max, personally, was quite chuffed. A chance to drop dead on stage, bring it on! It would be better if he'd been stabbed so he could have fake blood, but this was good. He tried to look miserable so he didn't upset Zoe, but Mrs Beauchamp had already seen him and was wagging her finger at him behind Zoe's back.

Then Mrs Beauchamp laughed.

"Absolutely right, Zoe, and that's where the most important character comes in… the Director. And as he's so important, he can only be played by one person… Our Ethan!"

Ethan's head shot up as if he'd been re-animated, and he beamed round.

"Now I'll want everybody who hasn't got a main part to boo loudly when the curtain comes down and the Director comes strutting on. The Director asks what's wrong and you'll all shout about it being a rotten ending. The Director will go 'Don't be silly, that's what always happens in tragedy' and the people will shout 'But this is a fun story!' The Director will look amazed and go 'It isn't, is it?' and everybody will go 'Oh yes it is!' They threaten the Director with never working again and he growls that he'll alter the ending at once. The curtain goes back up. Ben and Jen run on and do some magic to save Danny, then they tell Lisa about how Sebastian cheated and didn't cut down the thorny wood. Sebastian is sent packing in disgrace, and King Tarquin says only Danny can marry Lisa, and he makes him a Grand Duke. The Director comes on one more time and growls 'Was that a blooming happy enough ending for you then?' and everybody agrees that it was, and everybody will sing Jeff's Merry Woodman song to end the play."

The kids couldn't wait to get started, especially Ethan.


	4. Chapter 4

Just a bit of fluff before the rehearsals kick off for the competition.

Much as the kids had been advised not to fantasise about Disneyland Resort, so they wouldn't feel disappointed if they lost the competition, it was still a favourite topic of conversation.

Lofty remarked just before Mr Keogh came in for his class, that he'd like to go there so he could meet Snow White.

"Snow White!" jeered Cal. The others hoped he wasn't going to start being mean again.

Then he said, in his best 'older and wiser' voice, "Best Disney babe EVER's Sleeping Beauty. Besides, you'd look better with a blonde babe seeing as you're dark-haired."

Lofty saw Robyn scuttling in.

"Tell you what, though, I think Ariel's nicest. I like red-haired girls."

Robyn glowed. She turned round and gave Jess a vicious look.

Poor Jess didn't understand what she'd done wrong, and wanted to cry, but here was Mr Keogh ready to start the class.

"Now I think too many of us are getting too excited about Disney, so I've got something to take your mind off it", he announced.

The kids expected sum books, but then Mr Keogh told them he was bringing his big dog to school the next day. She was called Dervla and he was very fond of her.

"Please Mr Keogh, she'll not get our rabbits, will she?"

"Goodness me, no, Ethan, she'll not be allowed anywhere near the rabbits. But I thought some of you might like a walk with her tomorrow lunchtime, after you've eaten. So easy on the Carbonara tomorrow, eh?"

Next day the kids all met Dervla. She was a big dog indeed, but very gentle.

Jess came along on the walk, and Robyn wasn't pleased one bit. Jess was scared of Robyn and was hoping she'd not come on the walk.

"Me and Ben are going to get married when we're fourteen", Robyn suddenly announced.

"Oh you SHOULD", said Jess, beaming, "You'd be lovely together."

Robyn suddenly realised Jess wasn't the enemy after all, and offered her a sugar free fruit sweet.

By the end of the walk Robyn had promised to ask Zax if Jess and Jeff could join the Fierce, Brave Gang and Jess wasn't scared any more.

And Big Mac noticed that the wire on Ron and Harry's cage had been nibbled, making a gap, and they'd vanished. He felt queasy, especially with Dervla being at the school. Then he saw them both in Flossy's cage and felt relieved. If only he'd known…

Two weeks later, Ethan came up to Lofty, looking frightened.

"B-Ben, I think Flossy's ill."

Lofty tried to keep his temper because Ethan was only a baby but he was worried immediately for Flossy.

"Let's go and have a look at her" he said as kindly as he could.

When they reached the enclosure, Lofty grinned at the smaller boy.

"Look, silly, she's fine."

"B-but she's got fatter!"

"Oooh, yeah, so she has. Maybe she's getting greedy. It's not your fault, Ethan, we'll ask Big Mac what to do."

"But what if she has a big heart attack and dies?" Ethan couldn't bear it.

"You two twerps!" jeered Cal behind them, "She's got fat because she's full of baby rabbits!"

Ethan's knees wobbled in relief.

"But how can she be?" persisted Lofty.

Cal slanted his eyes over to Harry and Ron.

"She wouldn't do that!" Lofty gasped in horror, "They're her brothers!"

Cal, feeling delightfully superior, answered:

"I think it's allowed with rabbits. Like in ancient Egypt."

Fortunately, the bell went at that moment.


	5. Chapter 5

I just want to apologise for my obvious obsession with retelling fairy tales/folk tales, it does tend to work its way into my fan fiction. Thanks for reading!

Going for a walk with Mr Keogh and Dervla became a regular weekly feature for the kids, and on that day Miss Honey made sure the lunches were lighter, which meant that Carby Nora was now served on Mondays. Dog walking day was Wednesday.

Mr Keogh decided to take the kids through the major shopping arcade in the town centre one day, mainly because he wanted to nip into Sainsrose and get himself a bottle of wine for the evening. As the kids waited for Mr Keogh to come back out, who should they see but Taylor and two of her silly friends leaning against a wall.

"Ooh look, it's Holby losers!"

Sycopantic giggles from Taylor's friends, bang on cue.

"They're going in for the play competition! Fatty Robyn and Clumsy Ben and Baby Ethan think they'll win!"

"What's your play about?" asked Chantelle, the less rude of Taylor's friends.

"Can't tell you. State Secret." Replied Ben, not so clumsy that he would give away plot ideas to the enemy.

Taylor wasn't so discreet.

"Well we're doing a new version of Midsummer Night's Dream, and that's Shakespeare, so we'll beat yours."

"Shakespeare's got dirty bits in, and you'll get disquafflified", replied Cal.

"Well you'll get disquafflified first! Clumsy Ben'll break something, and then Fatty Robyn'll break the stage!"

A tear came to Robyn's eye.

"Shut up you bad old cow!"

Jess's cheeks were flaming in anger.

"Don't you call Robyn bad names! She got me and Jeff into the Gang, and she gave me one of her sugar free sweets. She eats sugar free stuff because she's 'sponsible' all the time."

"I can eat as much chocolate and sweets as I want because I'M thin", sneered Taylor.

"Yeah, and you'll get bad rotten teeth. All your teeth will drop out and then you'll not get chosen for your Shakespeare! Toothless Taylor!"

When Lofty fought back, he fought back in style. All the kids chanted 'Toothless Taylor' and Jeff pulled his mouth about with his fingers to look like somebody with no teeth.

Robyn beamed at Lofty just as Mr Keogh came back.

"Oh hello Taylor", he said with as much enthusiasm as if he'd said "A meteor is about to hit the school."

Taylor muttered hello then spat:

"You're all losers and we'll win because it's Shakespeare."

Mr Keogh rolled his eyes and said "Oh, Shakespeare, is it? About as watchable as Big Mac taking all his clothes off."

Taylor didn't quite dare hit Mr Keogh, but she ran to punch Jeff, who was doing a mocking little dance on the pavement.

"Bite her, Dervla" ordered Mr Keogh. He used the same tone of voice as he used for "Go over and make friends, Dervla" so the dog went plodding over. Taylor and her two squealing friends ran off.

"Well, Ethan, I think we'll talk to Mrs Beauchamp about you putting the line 'It's like _Shakespeare'_ after he's said the ending's a tragedy. Fancy that?"

"Ooh yeah but isn't it evil if we steal the other schools' ideas?"

"Not if Miss Big Mouth Taylor hands them to us on a plate. Right, my little troopers, back to school!"

And the happy little line followed Mr Keogh and Dervla back for the afternoon.


	6. Chapter 6

Warning: Minor character death. Alas, not Taylor's!

The kids had to be patient in the next month, as there was a lot of work to be done on getting the play just right before rehearsals could even begin. Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman locked themselves in Mrs Beauchamp's study quite a bit, and the kids were impressed because they knew they must be really getting down to it. The teachers were now trying to gently hint that there was a huge chance they might not win.

"As long as we beat Toothless Taylor and her scabby Shakespeare I'll be happy", Mr Keogh had said, and then:

"And if you quote me on that I'll keep you in after school for a week!"

Ms Chao was not sympathetic.

"Now I'm not going to let you draw anything to do with the play, or Disney. You need to stop building up your hopes, kids, so it's lessons as normal from me. There's every chance you might not win, however good a team we all are. Life's not fair at times, kids. If it was, I'd have won the lottery and would have a hot date with Johnny Depp by now."

The kids wanted to giggle despite their disappointment. Ms Chao was in love with Johnny Depp!

Ethan wanted to tell her she might meet Captain Jack Sparrow at Disney then realised Ms Chao would be very cross, and shut up quickly.

The kids were to learn that life isn't always fair the very next week, when there was a cold snap and only the kids who could walk to school or whose parents had transport that could cut through snow managed to make it to class. Mrs Beauchamp reluctantly told them that the rehearsals would have to be put on hold until the snow had thawed a little, and there were some sad little faces.

Cal confided to Mr Keogh that he was worried in case Toothless Taylor's school were able to begin their rehearsals at once, and Holby were left behind.

"Outside!" growled Mr Keogh.

Lofty, Cal and Ethan, the only kids who had been able to come to school that day, looked uneasy and went into the corridor.

"No, coats on and outside! The only good remedy for the blues is a big snowball fight. And you can throw them at me and forget I'm a teacher."

The boys cheered. The final score was: Dylan Keogh ten, Holby Boys twenty.

But later, after Mrs Beauchamp had received a phone call from Big Mac, she came and asked the boys to come to her study.

Big Mac had rushed the rabbits home to his house in his big van as soon as the bad weather had begun, knowing Flossy was due to have her babies any time.

Sadly, all but one of the babies had died… and poor Flossy hadn't survived either. Harry and Ron had just made it.

Cal growled: "Bloody old snow." Mrs Beauchamp didn't reprimand him.

Lofty, his voice quivering, said "It wasn't Big Mac's fault. He did a hero dash to try to save them."

Ethan just stared.

"Ethan", said Mrs Beauchamp quietly, "Miss Freeman and myself thought you might like to look after Flossy's little rabbit, Janie, when she's a little stronger."

Ethan screamed:

"No! I don't want! Why should Flossy get killed and not Ben's rotten rabbits? And if that Janie cries at me to feed her or cuddle her I'll… I'll…"

He thought of the most mean thing he could do to a new baby rabbit.

"I'll turn my back on her!"


	7. Chapter 7

A bit more X Cert than usual.

Cal, risking a punch or more likely a kick, considering how much smaller Ethan was than himself, said:

"Can't see why you're crying for Flossy."

Ethan's fists clenched.

"Seeing as she's having a great time in Rabbit Heaven", added Cal.

"R-rabbit Heaven?"

"Yeah. That's where she'll be now. In a big wide hutch with top class rabbit food and her other babies with her."

Ethan looked queryingly at Mrs Beauchamp.

She nodded. Ethan believed.

"But one thing will be making her very sad, Ethan. You won't help Janie, and she's one of Flossy's babies. Just imagine how she feels; she can't come back and look after her baby and you won't help Janie."

Ethan crumbled.

"I'll feed Janie and cuddle her. I'll not shout at her. But she'll just be my _rabbit_ and not my friend."

"That's a good start, Ethan."

"Ben, I'm sorry I said Ron and Harry were rotten rabbits and I'm glad they're not dead."

Lofty considered holding out, he was a little upset on Harry and Ron's behalf about what Ethan had said. But he smiled and held out his arms.

"Man hug?"

Late that night, while Cal was dreaming of getting rave reviews for being Bad Prince Sebastian in 'Thorns' and Ethan was dreaming of Rabbit Heaven, Miss Freeman and Mrs Beauchamp, wearing mufflers, gloves and thick coats, and caterwauling "Do you wanna build a snowman?", tottered on to the lawn with a lot of wine inside them.

They built a snowman. With every detail included. Mrs Beauchamp put an old hat on that detail instead of on its head.

"What's his name?" she gurgled.

"Daaaaave!" replied Miss Freeman.

"Who?"

"Ah, you know, LUV."

Mrs Beauchamp pretended to vomit in the snow, and, breaking the willie off Dave, with the hat still on it, presented it to Miss Freeman, purring:

"Do you want fries with that?"

Then they both collapsed, screaming with laughter, in the snow.

Then they crawled off to bed and awoke with the hangovers from hell.

Mr Fairhead had to come and pick up Cal and Ethan from Mrs Beauchamp's, and Lofty on the way, and take them to school, a few hours later, where he announced:

"Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman have both picked up a – er- bit of flu and won't be in today."

He was unprepared for Ethan's white face.

"They won't DIE, will they?"

The Flossy experience had hit the small boy hard.


	8. Chapter 8

"You could have gone to sleep in the snow! Do you KNOW what happens to people who sleep in the snow, Connie?"

"I'm a headmistress, not a bloody medical consultant! But, yes, Charlie, I know they get hypothermia and die. Rita and I got up and went to bed straight away. We just happened to have bad hangovers for once, that's all. You're a good friend Charlie, so I appreciate your advice. But please don't get your panties in a bunch over this. I'll be more careful."

Connie meant to be more careful, but she was to forget her resolution one more time in the future…

And it was soon business as usual and the first read through of the play took place in the assembly hall one afternoon. Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman had been locked in Mrs Beauchamp's study with a pot of coffee all morning, so Mr Fairhead had taken the assembly and reading class, which was normally Mrs Beauchamp's job. From the bumps and giggles that came from the study, the kids thought they must be acting out the play themselves before they told the kids what to do.

Now the kids all sat on their chairs as Mrs Beauchamp read out some notes:

"We thought it was a bit silly for Danny just to fall in love with Princess Lisa when he finds her asleep, so we changed it. There'll be an opening scene where Prince Sebastian and Princess Lisa ride through the town on the morning of their engagement. Danny's in the crowd, sees Lisa and falls in love."

Max thought that was all nice, but when did he get to drop dead? He was just living to drop dead!

"Also, we thought Ethan shouldn't just be used at the end, so we'll have him strutting on right at the beginning, and going "I'm the Director!" in his best snooty voice. Can you try that, Ethan?"

Ethan did his best snooty voice and strut and received a huge round of applause.

Then Mrs Beauchamp put the cat among the pigeons:

"Ben and Jen, we think you should have a crafty little kiss in your first scene, just to let the audience know you're in love sooner rather than later."

Robyn wanted to yell out that that was a silly old idea, but she didn't want to diss Mrs Beauchamp, whatever diss meant, so she just glared murderously at poor Jess.

Lofty saw the glare and decided to take action later.

And Ethan met Janie Rabbit for the first time when Mrs Beauchamp brought her over to him the next day before school.

"She's darker than Flossy. That's good 'cause she's not trying to be Flossy when she's not half as nice."

"Ah, she's not bad", Cal encouraged him.

"Well she's still only my rabbit. Flossy was my friend", grizzled Ethan the Stubborn.

"I know, then. Tomorrow we'll take Janie up to Miss Honey and ask her to make rabbit pie out of her!"

Mrs Beauchamp looked anxiously at Cal, then instinct told her not to interfere.

Ethan's face crumpled and he began to sob.

"That's wicked! I don't love her like Flossy but she's a rabbit, not a pie! Don't you dare hurt her."

Mrs Beauchamp could genuinely see Cal working in the Diplomatic Service when he was older.

Lofty sought out Mr Keogh at playtime.

"Please Mr Keogh, on Dervla day can we go to the shopping arcade?"

"No Ben, because we're going to have a lovely walk through the fields now the snow's gone."

"Oh… okay then."

Mr Keogh wondered if Ben Chiltern ever kicked off about anything. Then he almost smiled.

"But if you tell Mrs Dixon what you want, she'll go and fetch it."

"Please Mr Keogh, it's a present for a girl and I ought to choose it myself."

"All right, Ben, how does this sound? You don't take too long over lunch tomorrow and Mrs Dixon will take you to the shops afterwards. But you need to make up your mind fast when you're shopping as it's my class just after lunch and you wouldn't want to miss the delights and wonders of that, would you?"

"Ooh no Mr Keogh! That's great."

The shopping went as planned, and Mrs Dixon had Lofty back in time for him to get another gold star from Mr Keogh. The gold stars were going quite well; Zax had eight between them – they refused to count their gold stars separately even though they knew sitting together wasn't going to happen – Ethan and Lofty four each, Robyn two and even the once-rebellious Cal had a gold star. Cal managed with sums but much preferred reading and writing class with Miss Freeman. Miss Freeman didn't give stars at all but put nice things in everybody's notebooks in the margin.

Lofty sought out Robyn at playtime. Having been excused by Zax, who knew about Lofty's errand, they went to Big Mac's hut. Big Mac had kindly gone on his break to give them time alone.

"This is for you."

Lofty took out a little box from one of the novelty shops. It was a ring in Robyn's favourite colour.

"What's that for?"

"Try it on!"

Robyn did so and it was a decent fit.

"Now we're engaged and even if I have to kiss Jess two hundred times in the play you know you're still my girl. Will you, Robyn?"

Robyn extracted as much as she could from her special moment.

"You have to go on your knees and put your hand on your heart."

Lofty did, trying not to ruin the moment by falling over.

"Will you?"

"I will!" Robyn said trying to sound condescending, but grinning all over her face. Lofty could marry Jess in the play if Mrs Beauchamp wanted. He was Robyn's now!

They ran out of the hut just as Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman ran in with a big bottle of baby oil. The kids thought it was a funny thing to polish a hut with, but believed them about it.


	9. Chapter 9

From then on it was a whirl of activity at Holby Mixed Infants. Normal classes before lunch, and rehearsals in the afternoon. Sometimes the kids were even asked to stay behind for extra practise and they didn't mind at all.

Ethan loved his scenes, even the ones where he was being booed as the foolish director.

Robyn was quite happy for her 'finance' to have a couple of kisses with Jess, especially after what Jess had said to her when Robyn had showed her the 'engagement ring'.

"Ooh that's awesome! You and Ben getting married when he's fourteen!"

"You can be chief bridesmaid. If we don't still know each other I'll look you up on that – um – Headbook site and send you an invite."

Jess looked shy.

"Do you think Jeff could come to the 'ception?"

Oho, thought small Ms Miller, so it was Jeff, was it?

"Sure he can! When's your birthday? The gang likes to honour birthdays", she beamed at Jess.

Cal had a wonderful time being the bad prince. Strutting across the stage, telling the peasants to get out of his way – a lot of his mean comments were directed at Danny to make the story more ironic. Zoe liked those scenes because, as the Princess, she got to defend Danny and that meant saying nice things about Max.

Max himself had a slight disappointment when they rehearsed the scene where Danny is poisoned by the dark magic.

"Now I don't want you doing a long death scene here, Max, as that can look silly and spoil the story. So I just want you to give a moan, clutch at your throat, and then drop."

Max looked sorrowfully at Mrs Beauchamp.

"You'll thank me for it if we get good marks, won't you? Now come on, you're smart enough to do this."

Max did just as he was asked, and received applause from all the teachers in the room.

Ben liked his part because his name was easy to remember in the play, and because Robyn had stopped kicking off about Jess so he could really act being in love with her. He loved the little magic routine they performed while a catchy tune played. A cheerful young lady called Jude came in and played piano for the rehearsals.

Noel and Louise loved being the King and Queen, especially when they were encouraged to walk slowly round the playground with their heads held high. All the kids were encouraged to act bits of their parts in the playground.

Jeff had great fun singing his Merry Woodman song. He had a clear, pleasant voice and the teachers hoped this would gain some points too.

As for Robyn, she was little short of brilliant as Corisande, so desparate to make amends for her wicked spell and so horrified at the tragic consequences later.

"I think we're in with a really big chance here", Mrs Beauchamp told Miss Freeman as they sorted out the stationery room together. The kids felt sorry for them. It was a really nice Spring day and there were poor Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman stuck in a nasty pokey little room.


	10. Chapter 10

After the nice Spring day came another cold snap, but fortunately just sleet this time. And then there was a very important event that took place. Ethan had a birthday. He was very relieved that his birthday came before the competition as he was only five and the competition said he had to be six to be in it.

His memories of his fifth birthday were vague but he knew he'd been punched by his dad sometime that day, for making too much noise. One thing he did know was that there hadn't been a present. Cal and Ethan's parents had more to spend their precious money on than presents for their kids.

So when he got up that morning and came downstairs, there was a big parcel on the breakfast bar, with a smaller one next to it. And cards.

"Hey, birthday boy!"

Mrs Beauchamp, Miss Freeman and Cal were coming in.

"You open your cards and presents, Ethan, and I'll get your and Cal's breakfasts."

In a daze of joy, Ethan opened the smaller parcel first, wanting to save the big one for best and last.

"Ooh!"

"That's the one you wanted, isn't it?" Cal almost drawled. But the women could tell that he'd been almost delirious with impatience for Ethan to open his present.

"It's that dinosaur we saw in the shop! She's pink so she's a girl! Now Rupert's got a sister!" Ethan gasped.

Ethan had, against all advice, called his Christmas dinosaur Rupert.

"What will you call her?"

Ethan thought of the prettiest name he'd ever heard in his life.

"Orora. Like Sleeping Beauty except she's a dinosaur."

Ethan opened his big present, but looked puzzled when he'd undone it.

"Um… it's a cage. Is it for the dinosaurs?"

"No, it's for your present to live in when it comes here. You're getting a hamster."

"Like we saw in the pet shop? Will it look like him?"

"It IS him, Ethan. Miss Freeman and I bought him for you when we saw how much you liked him. He's been living at Ms Chao's so he could be a surprise for your birthday."

"What will you call him, Ethan?"

"Terminator!" was Birthday Boy's reply.

"And tonight you're going to have a special party and a special cake. It's got your name on but it's to share round."

"Ooh! An Ethan cake!"

The small boy's sixth birthday was making up for his fifth already.

"An effin' cake!" giggled Miss Freeman in the stationery room later.

"You hand me a ruler, Miss Dirty Schoolteacher. Your headmistress wants to smack your bum for being rude."

There was a special Birthday Honouring ceremony in the Gang Hut that playtime, and Miss Honey had made some cookies with Happy Birthday Ethan iced on them. Everybody but Robyn had one. Robyn was very worried because a lady called Baz was coming to try the costumes from the play on everybody in two weeks. What if she didn't fit into her costume?

Two children found it hard to sleep that night. Ethan, for pure excitement, after having had the best birthday ever, and Robyn through worrying about her weight.

Baz – she refused to let the kids call her Miss Baz – turned up with the costumes and tried them on everybody. For Zoe, there was the most gorgeous silver and blue dress and a little tiara. Max had a peasant shirt and trousers that were tight without being obscene. Lofty and Jess had wonderful little cloaks with moons and stars on them, and peasant clothing underneath. As for Ethan, he was over the moon about his costume. A proper old fashioned 'smoking jacket', velvet trousers, a director's cap and a mini megaphone. Cal had a glamorous white and gold Prince's costume, but he had to give that up at the end of the show when he's sent packing when it's revealed as a coward, and Max would then wear a Prince type outfit when he was a Grand Duke right at the end Robyn couldn't wait to try on the gorgeous black dress with fake black swan feathers on it. But oh dear:

"Robyn…. Your costume doesn't fit. I'll have to alter it; you're a naughty girl."

Robyn did her best not to cry but she was so ashamed. Until she heard just what Baz was saying to her:

"Robyn darling, you have to relax this healthy eating plan of yours. Your costume's baggy; I'll have to take it in. Now will you promise me you'll enjoy a couple of Easter Eggs next weekend, and try and stop any more weight coming off till after the show?"

Through a haze of happy tears Robyn saw Lofty giving her the thumbs-up sign.


	11. Chapter 11

"I don't want to have Easter holidays! I want to stay at school and do rehearsals and be the director!" wailed Ethan.

"Now you know that Dr Meyer said everybody was to have their Easter holidays because you need a break. Besides, the opposition will be on holiday too."

"What's the oppy zishion?"

"The other schools in the competition. Now come on, there'll be three weeks of rehearsals when we all come back. And you don't really want to go to school when Miss Freechamp and myself are taking Cal to Blackpool tomorrow, do you?"

Ethan stopped crying.

" Blackpool?"

"We're going on a day trip to Blackpool in Miss Freeman's car. There's a big theme park..."

That did the trick. Ethan soon dried his tears and decided he'd rehearse being the director in the car the next day.

He managed – more or less – on the way there, but on the way home he slept like a log.

Robyn enjoyed her Easter Eggs and stopped worrying. Miss Honey had written her out a big list of stuff she could eat that would keep her weight normal. Two Easter eggs over a week were included.

Soon the holidays were over but nearly all the kids felt like Ethan and wanted to get back to rehearsals anyway. Ben and Jen had a great new scene and it stopped Max feeling sad about his short death scene. After the Director agrees to make a happy ending, Ben and Jen rush in wearing blue scrubs like nurses wear, and do a little magic operation on Danny, using words like 'tachycardic' which sounded very grand. Danny would sit up bewildered and go 'I feel great now'. Then the rest of the happy ending would go ahead.

And the next Dervla day came round.

They passed the shopping arcade again and there was Taylor sitting on a bench swinging her legs. She smiled and batted her eyelashes at Cal.

"Come on, Cal, never mind her."

"I want to say sorry but I only want to say it to Cal", Taylor purred.

"Who am I to stand in the way of young love?" said Mr Keogh sarcastically, "Catch us up in fifteen minutes, Cal, or I'll have you in detention."

And Cal was left alone with the little minx.

"What's your play about? You never did tell me."

"Secret" said Cal regretfully.

"Oh come on Cal, I won't tell. We go up before you so we can't get ideas. Go on, Cal."

"Got any chocolate?"

Taylor sighed. Cal was almost as greedy as Taylor's friend Christine who would only play if Taylor handed chocolate out first. Taylor and Christine deserved each other.

Taylor gave Cal her precious Strawberry Whip Whop bar. Cal put it in his pocket and then said:

"Well, here's our story then."

He told the whole plot and Taylor's eyes got wider and wider.

Cal made it back to Mr Keogh and the others just in time to avoid detention, and with a strawberry Whip Whop bar for his break.

But at playtime he said to Zax:

"I have a terrible confession to make."

"You shall come to the Gang Hut and be judged", ordered Zax.

"Christine! Christine! Guess what I know about Holby Mixed Losers and their play."

"Chocolate first", and Christine's greedy little hand was out. Pocketing the Choco Mocha Rocks bar, she sat down and waited for the story:

"It's one of those tales that tells you about bad stuff happening to you if you disobey people, right? Well Ethan's this flea called Bernard who wants to be famous so he nags and nags and nags till people watch him doing tricks. And he's good. And so he gets to join a circus. And he's good. But the elephant – Max is doing the elephant's voice – is jealous of Bernard so he puts his hoof on him, and splat, Bernard's dead! And this man who looks like a skellington comes on and says in a big scary voice: That is what happens to foolish fleas who break rules."

Luckily, Christine hadn't started to eat her chocolate yet, as she gave a big spluttery laugh.

"You've been had, Taylor Ashby! Cause somebody from that school down the road noseyed through Holby infants' big window and saw Prince and Princess clothes hanging up. So Cal told you a big lie … and you're not getting your chocolate back!"

Christine fled; Taylor wept. Later she vowed vengeance on the entire Fierce, Brave Gang. She could have done with some chocolate to give her ideas… but she had none left since bribing the treacherous Cal and Christine.

"A flea called Bernard!" Jeff howled, slapping gleefully at his legs.

"Squished and squashed by an elephant that talks like me!" Max was almost weeping with laughter.

"And a big skellington comes on!" Ethan whooped, then shivered a bit. He hoped he wouldn't dream about the skellington later. He'd stroke Bob when he got home to feel better (Cal had managed to persuade him that Bob was the best name in the world for a hamster.)

"Caleb Knight, Zax pronounces you Spy of the Week for your brave trick. Come forward and choose a Gang Gift."

Cal chose a catapult. He reckoned he might need it for self-defence next time he met Taylor…


	12. Chapter 12

Thank you for all the lovely reviews! Quick thank you to Gypsy Abby for the suggestion; I had a lot of fun composing the last chapter. Also, hopefully this chapter should put Gillian Kearney Fan's mind at rest!

The next three weeks flew by and then it was the week of the competition.

Two plays per night were to be shown, the shortest before the interval. Apart from the Holby play, the one by Taylor's school, St Cuthbert's, was the only full-length one. The rest were either forty five minutes or an hour in length.

St Cuthbert's was to be shown on the Monday night, and Holby Mixed Infants on the Thursday. Friday night the judges would come back and say things about the plays and then the winners would be announced. School for the infants would go on as normal with classes in the morning and a rehearsal after lunch, but the kids would be sent home an hour earlier to get some rest before they went to see the other kids' plays. None of the plays would end later than 8.30pm, which would give the kids time to catch up on their sleep. At least that was the plan. Neither Lofty nor Ethan was sleeping very well because of nerves. Lofty kept worrying that he'd let the school down, and Ethan kept worrying that he wouldn't win and see Disney.

"Cal, what's that please?" Mr Keogh's eagle eye spotted the catapult in Ethan's pocket. Ethan spoke up, earning a big fat Cal glare.

"Mr Keogh, it's for him to kill that Taylor with if she tries to attack him."

"Liar! I don't kill girls, it's just to make her jump if she gets clever with me any more. I can aim above her head."

"I'll have that, thank you, Cal."

Cal was horrified, a Gang Gift had been confiscated!

Mr Keogh gave one of his rare almost smiles.

"You can have it back for the play but you're not to fire it for real. You could have it as Prince Sebastian and pretend to aim it at the peasants to terrorise them. Taylor will see that from the audience and be very afraid. Then I'll take charge of it for you again."

"Can I have it back if we win, Mr Keogh?"

"No Cal. You don't want to get yourself deported from Disneyland resort for having a dangerous weapon, do you?"

Zax had to speak up.

"But Mr Keogh, it was a Gang Gift."

"Explain please, Zoe. Max, you keep your pie hole shut for now. I can't have you both talking at once."

"When someone new joins the Gang, they bring a Gang Gift and we save them for prizes for being clever or helpful."

"Well, a catapult's not a good idea for a Gang Gift. But let me repair the damage."

To their amazement Mr Keogh took a whole five-pound note from his pocket and handed it to Zoe.

"I trust I have your word of honour that that money will be for Gang Gifts only? Max may speak this time."

Max made the Gang Salute sign which was also very useful for swearing oaths with.

"It will Mr Keogh. But it's a massive huge amount of money, and…."

"Please go on, I would like to teach sums at some point this morning."

"Well… um… that kind of makes you a Gang Member, Mr Keogh?"

"Do I have to wear a silly hat or have a badge? Zoe?"

"No Mr Keogh, just come to meetings. You get sweets. We share all our sweets."

"Admirable, but alas I would prefer just to be an honorary member for now. Like a sleeping partner. Which I'll explain after we've all actually done some SUMS!"

The Gang were thrilled to bits and worked like Trojans for the next hour.

Mr Keogh would never have admitted it but he'd been one of those deprived children who never had a catapult. He had a nice back wall and planned on a bit of target practise in his spare time.

Lofty cuddled Eric Chiltern against his chest, stroking the kitten behind its ears. He was scared and Eric was nice to cuddle.

"I'll be glad when it's Thursday and we can just go on and do it. After that it'll be other people who have to decide stuff."

Eric purred and the little boy grinned placidly. Eric always understood, he was a top kitten.

Later, during the night, Ethan woke, shuddering and clung to Cal.

"Is it the skellington?" Cal asked, feeling remorse that he'd planted a scary image in his brother's mind.

"No, it's a big fat audience saying 'boo, we don't like that director.' And throwing rotten tomatoes."

"People aren't allowed to take rotten tomatoes into theatre places. It's umm… health and safety."

Ethan settled back into sleep, then dreamed about the skellington. But in his dream, Ethan bashed it hard and it fell to bits.

Max dreamed of a TV producer saying "That boy who dropped dead is very good, we'll put him in a show."

Zoe and Robyn both dreamed of a lovely wedding.

And Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman dreamed of what they could do if the school won, and the Eurostar went into a tunnel…


	13. Chapter 13

The crucial week was here. Because of a newly-imposed rule that only entrants who'd already performed could watch the other schools' contributions, the Mixed Infants felt a little deprived.

"Did you really want to watch dear little Taylor skipping round the stage in a tutu doing Shakespeare? Blah!" was Mr Keogh's comment. Then he glared and said:

"SUMS! NOW!" and wondered why the kids just grinned as they got out their books.

Eric Chiltern and Bob Hardy Hamster got a lot of cuddles, as did the rabbits at school. Ethan was now besotted by Janie.

"She's a good rabbit, isn't she?" Ethan confided to Lofty. Although Ethan loved his big brother, he liked to tell Lofty things because Lofty was kind and didn't tease.

"Fat enough for a pie!" chimed in Cal.

Gentle little Lofty did something entirely out of character. He put up his fists.

"Me and Ethan will have to kill you if you don't shut up with that. And then we'll get you out of the gang."

Then they realised what Lofty had just said, and they fell about laughing.

The judges came to see Mrs Beauchamp, to discuss the procedures. There was a Ms Lara Stone, a Mr Patrick Spiller and a Mr Martin Ashford. The two men tried their charm in vain on the headmistress, their cause being even more hopeless when Mr Spiller made a throwaway comment that hinted at homophobia. Being professional judges however, they didn't let personal feelings cloud their judgement. But both men felt it was like being allowed to see and smell a delicious pie and then being told that they were on diets.

The kids were a bit worried when they found out that the audience would have the final vote.

"But if any of Taylor's friends or parents are in, they'll give us rotten marks."

"There'll be enough parents who like you, Ben, so stop fretting and finish that drawing of Eric Chiltern for me" ordered Ms Chao.

The judges went to a restaurant every night and discussed the performances over dinner. On the Monday night they discussed 'Titania's dream', the production by St Cuthert's, and 'Jacqueline and the Beanstalk' by Holby Sports Academy.

"I think the Beanstalk one might just scrape through. It was better than that St Cuthberts' effort. All they did was take the bits about the fairies from Midsummer Night's Dream and act them."

"But Beanstalk was just a gender-bender version. The giant man who's kind to Jacqueline, but his wife who tries to catch her and eat her. But that little girl playing Jacqueline can climb."

"So she should, coming from Holby Sports."

"So Cuthberts at the bottom, with 'Jaqueline' best out of those two up to now."

"Just our views. The parents will decide. Let's hope they're not besotted with soppy little blonde kids in tutus."

And all too soon it was Thursday. The only kid who could eat a decent breakfast that day was Noel because he could eat a decent breakfast in the middle of a battle zone. All the other little guts were full of butterflies.

Mr Keogh didn't even make them do sums.

"Just sit there and read today, kids."

He handed books of stories out. They were nice and one made Ethan giggle a bit because it was about a circus with an elephant, but they were still all quite tense.

Miss Honey knew the feeling and made soup and made soup and smoothies for them all. They found these easier, but still didn't clear their soup bowls.

There were no lessons for the afternoon, but one final rehearsal was to take place at the Holby New Theatre, where the plays were being performed.

Then the kids would have a rest, until it was time for their play to begin.

"Now look, kids, just do your best. Nobody's going to shout at you afterwards if we don't win. We've all had a good time putting this together haven't we?"

Nods and grins from the kids.

"Well then. You just enjoy yourselves, do your best and then we'll all know on Friday, won't we?"

Miss Freeman passed a note over to Mrs Beauchamp, who read it, raised her eyebrows and said:

"Good point, Miss Freeman. We'll see to that when this lot are having their rest."

Minx, thought Mrs Beauchamp, she KNOWS the tips of my ears go red when I'm embarrassed.

Suddenly there was a little frightened moan from Ethan:

"I don't want to be the Director any more."


	14. Chapter 14

"Why not, you're awesome!" Lofty gasped, just as the mini bus drew up outside the theatre.

"Still don't want."

"Come on Ethan, stop messing us all about!" snapped Louise, who could be tactless to the point of rudeness. Ethan turned his back on her. Cal knew that stubborn little back.

"If you don't go on we can't do the play. And that means Toothless Taylor will be sneering, especially as their play's at the bottom of the judges leaderboard."

The stubborn little back relaxed a little.

"Okay", Mr Keogh said sounding almost cheerful, "We'll leave you here locked in the minibus until the play's over. Ben, have you one of your excellent Alien comics for Ethan to read for the next two and a half hours?"

"Here we go, Mr Keogh."

Lofty was a little anxious in case Ethan tore up his comic in a temper, but he could refuse his beloved Mr Keogh nothing, and handed over his treasure.

Ethan cut in:

"Don't want it. I'm coming out. I'll go on."

He got up and Cal hastily guided him. Ethan was even better at falling down steps than Lofty.

"Glad you changed your mind; you'll be great. I knew you'd want to wear that Director costume and strut about", Cal grinned.

"It's not that. I'm not going two and a half hours without a wee break. The Director'll get a chance to wee!"

Several teachers and pupils thanked the pull of the call of nature.

The first play by Newport Elementary school (Newport was close enough to Holby to be allowed) was a fine retelling of the Firebird legend. Mrs Beauchamp, who knew both versions of this story, sat with heart in mouth in case they did the part where the young prince is murdered by his two brothers but revived by his faithful friend, the Fox. Fortunately they concentrated on the stealing of the magic egg and the defeat of the evil magician. The Holby kids were somewhat deflated by the pleasure on the judges' faces and Cal worried that Ethan would notice this and walk out, but then saw Ethan's other trademark look. The one that said 'Nobody's going to beat me'.

After a break, in which the young Director enjoyed his wee, it was time at last.

Taylor was sitting in the front row with a big sneer on her face, and her sneer got bigger as Ethan entered as the Director.

'Fluff your lines' she thought spitefully, but Ethan was raring to go now and was word-perfect. Robyn entered and told how she'd cast a terrible spell when she'd been jilted by the king. Ha ha, they're just doing Maleficent, thought Taylor. Her face contorted in rage as she saw the next scene, where the Prince turns out to be lazy and spoiled. Cal had a whale of a time.

Several mums and one or two dads sighed as Max entered to play Danny. Max was a nice-looking little lad and Danny was extremely likeable. Pretty little Zoe drew plenty of gasps of approval and then it was time to meet the trainees Ben and Jen. Lofty prayed he'd not be clumsy and his prayers were answered; the routine was spot-on. Everybody soon picked up the tune of the Merry Woodman song and Jeff was in his element. He'd made up a little dance as well, and even though it wasn't in the script, had decided to add it. The applause he received made Mrs Beauchamp decide not to be too hard on him later.

The audience were left gasping at the tragic 'ending' – Max did just what he'd been told to and drew a few sobs from some of the mums.

Then Ethan had his moment.

"But it's meant to be a sad ending" he told the outraged 'critics' behind the curtain, 'Like _Shakespeare_ '.

The audience howled with glee at the line, and cheered and clapped when Ben and Jen's skills revived Danny.

The evening ended with the Holby Mixed Infants at the top of the leaderboard and Taylor texting all her friends telling them to vote for anybody but Holby Mixed Infants the next night.


	15. Chapter 15

Very long chapter: Also a warning for X Cert towards the end of the story.

Next day the kids turned up to school as usual and expected to be doing sums with Mr Keogh. However, they were asked to go straight to the Assembly hall.

"As it would be unfair to expect you to do any lessons before the mini bus comes for us all at four o' clock, we're going to have a day of games with a two hour lunch break. It'll be a buffet lunch. Now there's something I need to tell you. Even if we don't win tonight, even if we don't even come second, I want all of you to know that I am so delighted with your performances yesterday. None of you put a foot wrong. I'm proud of you all."

The kids beamed at Mrs Beauchamp; they were still all wondering how they'd live till the end of the evening when the results were given out, but this would help a bit.

Mr Keogh had brought his silly books in again, and Ethan was first to be chosen. There was a difference this time. The child who answered correctly had to nominate the next one to answer.

"Mr Keogh, that's not Pirates of the Wapping Docks, it's Pirates of the Caribeen, and I want Cal to answer the next one."

"Read it out for him then please, Ethan."

"Lukewarm."

Cal didn't get it at first and felt silly as he was the eldest in the class. Then it came to him:

"It's Frozen! Ben, what's wrong with this title and what's the right answer: "The Two-and-a-half Musketeers."

The kids were still giggling at the end of the class. Then Ms Dixon had some more Tai Chi for them… but she'd got them all little animal masks to wear. And they had to shout out their animal noises when she said their names:

"Ethan?"

"Oink! Oink!"

Ethan didn't want to take off his piggy mask to have lunch but one sight of Miss Honey's big brown eyes and he was putty in her hands. She'd done something lovely; she'd made a lovely cake with 'Good Luck Holby Mixed Infants' iced on it. They could all have a piece after they'd eaten their main course. Mrs Beauchamp said nobody was to cut the cake until she'd taken a photo.

A special walk took place afterwards even though it wasn't Dervla Day officially. More singing and suddenly it was time to get washed and into their posh clothes for the judging over at the New Theatre.

"And a big big wee", Ethan said firmly to himself. He knew he was getting scared because he always wanted to wee when he was scared.

Finally, they were sitting in their seats awaiting the entrance of the judges, who would be giving a little talk on each play before the final votes came in.

"I'm discussing the plays with our winners in reverse order, with our choice of winner last. But please remember that it's your votes that will decide the real winner of the competition. Please don't vote yet as your votes won't be counted. We'll ask you to vote when we're ready", announced Mr Spiller. Ms Stone took over:

"So first of all we come to the lowest on our list: "Titania's Dream" by St Cuthbert's School."

Taylor's mouth set into a mean little line.

"Now, please don't misunderstand us. The acting was excellent and the little girl who played Titania was so graceful when she danced. But sadly, this play actually broke the rules. We asked for an original story; this was performed exactly to Shakespeare's original script. We decided against disqualifying, and we'll be letting the public decide the play's merits. But it is a good idea to read the small print in these cases. Okay, then there's "Jacqueline and the Beanstalk…"

Taylor glared at Ms Stone. I hope you have a heart attack and drop down dead, the little girl wished evilly.

Miss Montgomery took over, then it was back to Mr Spiller for the judges' choices for runner up and winner:

"Our runner up, from Newport Junior Dance and Performing Arts, has the delightful title of "Gold, Frankincense and Mer." A lovely story of a mermaid who wants to be human so she can have a human Christmas – what a brilliant concept. But sadly, it was so underused. Our little mermaid gets her wish from the witch; but the witch only wants jewels, there's nothing dangerous about the price. Then the mermaid has a lovely time being human and walking in snow; singing along with the carols, and finally, sharing a home with a kind family on Christmas Day. Beautiful scenes, and great acting… but again, no conflict. We'd have preferred our little Mermaid to have fallen in love with a human man and having to leave him at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Night. How could that have been solved? So, a very worthy runner-up…"

The Holby kids looked at each other in growing excitement. Were they hearing this properly? Ethan was too excited to even want to wee.

"And the winners from us are Holby Mixed Infants with "Thorns". I must admit that when I first started watching, I just thought this school was jumping on the Maleficent bandwagon – but then things took such a different turn! The Prince turns out to be a spiteful slob – wonderful acting there! – and the real hero a handsome young peasant."

Max knew, whatever the outcome, he was going to get 'Pretty Boy Max" chanted at him afterwards. But who cared? He was liking how this was going very much!

"After more great acting from all concerned, we get our shock ending. But then – and I hope none of the cast are offended by this! – we get the real star of the show. A big shout out to Ethan Hardy as a big-headed Director who's cut down to size by his critics. Cue happy ending and a lovely wedding for our Beauty and her hero. So, Holby Mixed Infants are the winners in our opinion… and now it's up to you, audience! Please get your final votes in now; after the break there'll be a special performance from the New Theatre Repertory company, and then the real results!"

Suddenly Mr Spiller felt a mobile phone hitting him directly in the shoulder. Taylor, shouting "You're all big fat stupid pigs!" was removed by a security guard.

The Fierce, Brave Gang actually felt ashamed on her behalf. But not so ashamed they couldn't hug each other in excitement. They missed seeing Mr Spiller discreetly stamping on the mobile phone.

Everybody loved the performance after the break. The performers, dressed as animals, sang a song from "Wind in the Willows". It was the scene where Mr Toad returns to Toad Hall after his misadventures, to find that his ancestral home has been taken over by weasels, ferrets and stoats. His loyal friends vow to help him:

"We'll take off our braces and jackets and coats, and beat up the weasels and ferrets and stoats…"

There was a bit that made Ethan giggle but he did it quietly because it was bad manners to spoil songs:

"Mole hasn't got any braces, Badger will lend him some braces. Badger will lend him some very clean – slightly soiled – braces."

Then the animals bounded offstage, and the three judges came back with the results.

"Gold, Frankincense and Mer" came third.

"The Firebird" was second.

The Mixed Infants hugged each other in fear. Supposing they'd been voted off the face of the earth by Taylor's friends? But then:

"And the worthy winners of the holiday in Disneyland Resort, Paris, are… "

A pause that went on for ever, seemingly….

"HOLBY MIXED INFANTS! Will their Headmistress, Mrs Beauchamp, come on stage and collect her trophy, please?"

Mrs Beauchamp came forward, collected the trophy and even endured Mr Spiller's rubbing up a little too close to her.

"If you can come and see us on Tuesday lunchtime, Mrs Beauchamp, accompanied by one of the teachers if you prefer, we'll hand over all the relevant documents and discuss terms and conditions. But we can guarantee your children won't be disappointed with their holiday."

The mini bus drove home, with all the kids dreaming their separate dreams of the future.

Ethan wanted to meet Micky Mouse and also to get Captain Jack Sparrow's autograph for Ms Chao.

Max and Zoe were going to sneak a few cuddles in on the dark rides.

Cal couldn't wait for all the fear and fun of the dark rides.

Lofty was excited and hoped he'd not be clumsy too much.

Noel and Louise were wondering which teachers would go, apart from Mrs Beauchamp and her sidekick, Miss Freeman.

Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman celebrated, this time, probably wisely, indoors.

If the neighbours heard the celebration song, they wisely shut their eyes to it…

"Connie hasn't got any panties; Rita will lend her some panties. Rita will lend her some very clean – slightly soiled – panties!"

Unfortunately, two days later, it looked as if everybody's happiness was going to be smashed flat by the spiteful act of one little girl.


	16. Chapter 16

Warning: Possible character death

Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman went along to the meeting with the New Theatre staff and found the prize was a more than generous one. Free minibus travel from Holby to St Pancras; an overnight stay in a Travelodge for everybody the night before. Eurostar travel from St Pancras direct to Marne-La-Vallee, the station for Disneyland resort. Places for two more teachers as well as Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman on the trip. Four nights in the Disneyland Hotel, which was five minutes walk away from the parks, but that meant actually five days there, because of the ingenious offer from official Disney hotels. Luggage would be checked in at St Pancras, and as long as it was correctly labelled, sent straight down to the hotel so that travellers could begin their visit to the resort after disembarking from the train. On the day of departure the luggage would be sent to the station to be stored until it was time for everybody to travel home in the evening, which meant a full day in the actual resort. Five day passes for everybody, for both the Studio and Disneyland Park. This included fasttrack tickets, a clever way of beating the queuing system for popular rides. And a very generous amount of spending money to be divided between the kids.

This news led to a special Fierce, Brave Gang meeting.

"Zax believes that it's wrong that only us kids get the spending money when the teachers helped us all win but Mrs Beauchamp says she'll not take a penny of it as it's all for us. Who wants to go on a mission to find the best presents for the teachers ever while we're there?"

"But they'll guess that we're buying for them and they'll not let us go in the shops on our own." Cal was practical as usual.

"Get just one of the teachers in on the plot? Beg them not to snitch?" Lofty had high hopes that Mr Keogh would help. He was over the moon that Mr Keogh was to be one of the people going.

"Good point, Ben. You shall have a gold star to wear on your bag."

Zax had taken to giving out gold star stickers now.

"Do you think Big Mac'll take care of Janie Rabbit?" Ethan asked anxiously.

"Oh who didn't love Janie Rabbit at all when she first came? Who was going to turn his back on her?" teased Cal.

"Well I love her now."

"Ethan, I'm not sure about you going on those scary rides; you're only little", said Cal with all the wisdom of a seven-year-old.

"The teachers'll go on them too. Maybe Ms Chao can hold me so I can go on", Ethan persisted. Cal let him be; he knew all about Baby Brother's crush on Miss Chao. And Miss Honey. And Mrs Dixon… but he had to tease Ethan just to show him who was boss:

"We'll get Mrs Beauchamp to mark out all the places you can go to wee, on a big map."

"I don't wee all the time!"

Mrs Beauchamp had arranged a meeting with the kids' parents to outline what was needed for the trip. Max, Zoe, Jeff and Noel already had passports. The others prayed that their parents wouldn't say passports were too expensive, but there were no protests from any of the parents. Compared to what they'd have had to spend taking the kids on holiday, a new passport was nothing. The kids prayed the passports would turn up before the holiday start time.

School continued as normal; the kids settled down relatively easily into lessons again, excited as they were for the last week in June. Mrs Beauchamp had received permission to take the Mixed Infants away from school for a week, as long as the trip would be educational as well as fun for them. And they were all learning French.

"Bonjour, je m'apelle Max. J'aime Zoe." (Hello, my name's Max. I like Zoe.)

"Bonjour, je m'apelle Ben. J'aime mon chaton Eric Chiltern." (Hello, my name's Ben. I love my kitten, Eric Chiltern.)

"Bonjour", said wicked Cal at playtime, "Je m'apelle Ethan. J'aime pisser tout le temps." (Speaks for itself!)

"I DON'T wee all the time!"

Dervla Day came round and Mr Keogh thought the kids might enjoy going to the shopping arcade, not expecting any friction now the school had won. Taylor stood in a shop doorway, but she just stared at them as if they were invisible. Until they'd reached the end of the street. Taylor's plan was to throw a stone at Mr Keogh's bum, so he'd get really angry and hit her, and then be banned from Disney. Sadly, Dervla had been allowed off her lead because she was so well trained. The stone hit the dog in her side and she yelped in pain, and ran into the road. There was a squeal of brakes and a sickening thud….


	17. Chapter 17

"I don't want to go to Disney if Dervla's dead", whispered Zoe, actually speaking on her own for once.

The Mixed Infants just wished Mrs Beauchamp would come in and tell them something.

They knew Dervla Dog was still alive when the kind policeman had rushed her to the vet's in his car and taken Mr Keogh with him.

They knew Mr Keogh had done something more frightening than hitting Taylor. He'd just looked at her as if she were dirt, and said coldly:

"One word, you little bitch. Karma."

A policewoman had said to Taylor, on learning the facts:

"Come on young lady, your parents need to know about this."

The kids didn't know the next bit, but Taylor certainly got Karma. Her mother, usually so doting, was a dog lover herself. She bawled:

"Get upstairs NOW. We were going to take you to Disneyland resort ourselves to make up for losing, but that's cancelled from now. No summer holiday this year. No pocket money until you've paid off that vet's bill. And don't show yourself downstairs here until I call you tomorrow. If you're hungry you can live off your spleen… you've got enough of it."

Now the kids were sitting in Ms Chao's class, too upset to carry on drawing. For once, Ms Chao didn't push them.

About ten minutes before hometime, Mrs Beauchamp came into the classroom where Mr Fairhead had given up on reading to them and was just letting them sit holding hands in a circle.

"Sorry it's been so long; Dervla's just come round from her operation. Her leg's been saved. Mr Keogh says to tell you there'll be Dervla days again but not soon. She'll have a limp for a while but she's a very lucky dog."

Lofty began to sob from sheer relief.

Zax hugged each other.

"Is Taylor going to prison for a legal injection?" Ethan asked in all seriousness.

"Dervla didn't die, thank goodness, Ethan, but Taylor won't be going to prison. She's too little. I have heard that Mr Keogh's going to take the vet's bill money from her parents… and give it to charity. He says she has to learn."

"Give us a lend of your hanky, Ben, mate", Cal asked, trying not to sniff.

"No, don't share hankies, please. This is a clean one, Cal." Mrs Beauchamp produced a decent boy-sized hanky from her bag. Ben looked very ashamed.

"Ben, darling, you're not dirty, it's just one of my rules about hankies. Now you can all go home and relax, and dream of Disney can't you?"

"But Mr Keogh won't go. He'll want to stay with Dervla and look after her till she can walk again."

"I believe Mrs Dixon is taking care of all that" Mrs Beauchamp told them.

"Come on Dylan, you're looking forward to this holiday and your lovely dog's going to be safe now. You don't go till June and I'm more than happy to dog sit for you. I'd love to get Dervla under my roof for a week; you're not going to ruin things for me now are you?"

Mr Keogh gave a sulky pout, which changed to a half grin.

"Thanks, Dixie."

Woo hoo, thought Mrs Dixon, "Dixie" now, is it?

Now the countdown to the Fierce Brave Gang and Friends holiday could begin in earnest.

A/N: You don't think I'd have really killed off that lovely dog, do you?


	18. Chapter 18

Inspired by a really good idea from Gypsy Abby. I hope it doesn't make anyone reading it too queasy. The next few weeks were a whirl of activity for kids and teachers alike. In Ms Dixon's class, Ethan asked her:

"Didn't you want to go to Disney, Ms Dixon?"

Ms Dixon wanted to reply that she'd rather eat her arm than go to a crowded theme park where adults dressed as cartoon characters kept popping up and Disney tunes played remorselessly all day but she just said politely that it wasn't her thing. She gave him a rather more strenuous set of excercises than usual to keep him from asking further questions.

Ethan asked Miss Honey the same question and she told him that she didn't count anyway, as she was the dinner lady and not a teacher. On seeing his sad little face, she confessed that she had a new boyfriend and wanted to be with him as much as possible. Ethan wanted to punch and kick the new boyfriend, but just said "That's nice" instead.

"I'm doing something different tomorrow; seafood carbonara. You can see if you like it."

Why should someone as clever as Miss Honey be wasted on a scabby old boyfriend, thought Ethan.

Next morning, before she and Miss Freeman drove Cal and Ethan to school, Mrs Beauchamp needed to visit the supermarket. While Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman were having a giggle behind some shelves, Ethan spotted something. Food samples. He knew he wasn't supposed to eat between meals, but he hadn't wanted much breakfast and was now hungry again. He fancied some of the quiche that was cut up in bits for people to try. He sneaked a nice fat piece of it and scoffed it quickly before Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman came back, and had a quick swig of his fizzy water to take the taste of quiche off his breath. Cal had been looking at some t shirts and planning to ask if he and Ethan could have one each for the holiday. Suddenly all the tins fell off a shelf, and Miss Freeman and Mrs Beauchamp, slightly red-faced, replaced them as best they could.

Later at lunchtime Ethan's guts felt a bit wobbly so he only had a small portion of the seafood carbonara. Even that proved disastrous. He suddenly went green and threw up all over Lofty's shoes.

"Ugh, gross!" Louise commented.

"It's okay", the ever-patient Lofty said, going off with Ms Chao to get some spare shoes while Ms Chao had the charming task of cleaning his own shoes up. Lofty didn't want anything else to eat so was happy to come out of the canteen.

Then Ethan was sick again.

The canteen was closed down for the afternoon and arrangements were made for Mr Fairhead to take Ethan home.

Ethan never made it to the car; he was sick another three times, then started to sob in pain and clutch his gut.

Normally he'd have felt like a VIP with the ambulance coming roaring towards him but Ethan feared the worst. He was going to die and never get to Disney. And maybe he'd go to hell for not doing what Mrs Beauchamp told him, and stealing the piece of quiche.

His stomach hurt horribly again, he was sick once more, then a kind doctor injected his arm and Ethan seemed to go into a nice snooze.

"I checked that seafood, it was fresh! Oh what have I done to him, he's only a baby!"

Miss Honey was crying. She was fond of all the kids, but Ethan was 'her baby' more or less.

"It could have been me. He was asking me all kinds of questions about Disney and I gave him more excercises", sighed Ms Dixon.

Meanwhile, Ethan was having a nightmare probably brought on by the drugs. He'd made it to Disneyland and was at the front of the queue to get Mickey and Minnie's autographs. Then he'd thrown up on Minnie's dress. Minnie and Mickey ordered him out of Disneyland forever.

He woke up to find he didn't feel sick any more but his stomach was still very sore.


	19. Chapter 19

That night, Cal knocked shyly on Mrs Beauchamp's bedroom door.

Miss Freeman hastily pulled on her panties and hid in the en-suite bathroom.

"Come in, Cal."

"Please Mrs Beauchamp, does Lebsion Magic still work?"

"As long as you don't tell on us, Cal. Want some for Ethan?"

Cal nodded vigorously.

"Well I'll come down and make you a nice hot drink and you can play The Lion King DVD before your tea. Then Miss Freeman and I will see what we can do for Ethan. We'll be visiting him tomorrow if they say he's up for visitors."

Cal beamed, and scuttled downstairs for his favourite DVD and a drink.

When his footsteps died away Miss Freeman came out of the ensuite waving her panties and singing "Hakuna Matata".

"Freeman, you and Cal's imagination will be the death of me between you."

Several teachers and pupils thanked the pull of the call of was given a nice heated pad for his gut, but was still worried and weepy.

The doctors had said he would soon be better, and assured him that he'd be out of hospital well before his trip, but he felt small, scared and lonely.

"We're very busy today", the doctor told him, more to make conversation than make the little boy feel pressured, "A lot of people have food poisoning from a dodgy quiche in Sainsrose."

Ethan went very red.

Miss Honey was still worried and upset for Ethan. The other kids tried to tell her it couldn't have been her seafood Carby Nora; they'd all had a plateful. True, after what happened to Ethan, they'd not exactly finished their plates, but they'd had some of it before Ethan was ill.

Then Mr Keogh came in with the local paper:

"It's not you, Miss Honey, it's Sainsrose's quiche."

"I thought it might have been that extra workout I gave him", sighed Ms Dixon in relief.

"I wondered if I'd pressurised him that morning, telling him to stop looking out of the window and to finish his drawing."

Poor Ms Chao looked relieved too.

"The little monkey must have sneaked some quiche while we were… er… looking for some fresh fruit." Miss Freeman volunteered.

Mr Keogh gave them a sly wink.

The next morning, a delegation arrived at the hospital. Normal rules only allowed two visitors at a time, but as Ethan had a private room, the whole delegation were admitted. Ethan looked up from a snooze and saw Zax and the whole class along with Miss Honey, Ms Chao, Mr Keogh and the saucy Lion King Ladies. They had a big parcel.

The doctor had allowed them to bring it to the little boy, who was well on the road to recovery.

Ethan cheered up at once and opened his parcel gleefully.

"Oh! It's a special autograph book… and that T shirt I liked."

"Just the thing for your holiday. The doctor says you'll be out in three days, Ethan, so how good is that?"

Miss Honey came forward and gave Ethan a little kiss.

"I'm missing you, Tiger."

"I need somebody to pick on", Cal shrugged, always loath to show his feelings.

"Zax is sad not to have your company", announced Zax themselves.

"You've got the wrong name on that T Shirt", Mrs Beauchamp said, trying to sound severe.

"But it's my name."

"I know. It should say Quiche Bandit", replied his Headmistres, giving him a shrewd look.

Ethan groaned and everybody laughed.

Ethan thought it was almost worth being ill for. But not quite.

Cal thought "Hooray for Lebsion Magic."

And Miss Freeman seriously wondered if any cubicles were free, and received an even more shrewd look from Miss Beauchamp.


	20. Chapter 20

Finally, it was Travel Day. The mini bus was due to visit all the kids' homes to pick them up in order of who lived furthest from the city centre, from 2pm onwards.

Robyn was first, Ms Chao asked her to go to the back, and she asked if she could save the three seats next to her for Lofty, Jess and Jeff.

"It's easier to fill up the bus from the back, Robyn, rather than have everybody climbing over each other's legs all the time. You'll get plenty of time to be with friends when you get to the resort."

"But Ben'll get on last because he's nearly in town!" pouted Robyn.

"Oh for goodness sake, the journey's only two hours" sighed Ms Chao, forgetting that two hours is a lifetime when you're small.

Next were Noel and Louise, with Louise giving her friend orders about what they were going to do on the trip. Noel thought it was easier not to tell her he was going to team up with the lads for the holiday.

Zax were waiting faithfully on Zoe's doorstep. Zoe ran in for one more hug with her mum and dad, then got into the bus.

Mr Keogh was also waiting outside, anxiously outlining all the things Dervla liked and didn't like to Ms Dixon. Ms Dixon thought it would feel like a holiday for her when Mr Keogh got on the minibus.

"Don't forget her favourite's that squeaky striped toy the kids bought her when she came back from the vet", he managed to shout down the steps just before he took his seat.

Robyn was going to ask why Mr Keogh wasn't made to go to the back to fill up the seats, when she remembered about Dervla Dog, so she just gave him a weak smile.

Jess and Jeff were duly picked up, and Robyn gave them a "Don't look at me, I tried to save you seats" look. Jess and Jeff were just happy to be on their way at last.

Other class members climbed aboard at various stops.

Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman arrived with Cal and Ethan, Cal shouting cheekily:

"Wee breaks on demand, Ethan! You're in!"

"I don't wee all the time!"

Finally they picked Lofty up.

He tried to look sad about not being able to sit with Robyn but was too excited about the trip and too looking forward to laughing with Cal and Ethan, to look sad for long.

Then as they headed out of the city and towards the motorway, Mrs Beauchamp had a surprise.

"We shared up all the money equally, kids, but there was some left over, so Miss Freeman and myself will have that as emergency money. We've been able to book you a treat tonight… Shrek live on stage! There's a five o' clock performance, and the mini bus will take all your cases to the Travelodge while we're enjoying the show. It's a treat for working so hard and winning the competition"

Even Robyn couldn't sulk after that, though Cal got a warning look from Mrs Beauchamp when he shouted:

"Ethan wants a seat near the toilets!"

The kids' eyes were wide when they pulled into London's West End and when they climbed down the minibus steps outside the theatre, they were buzzing with excitement. Lofty nearly fell down the steps in his joy.

The show was everything they had imagined, and then it was time for a light evening meal, an hour to let their guts settle, and then off to bed.

"Thought you'd rather share with Ben" said gobby Louise to Robyn.

"Not allowed to. Even Zax is split up. It's in case the boys do rude boy stuff and we see them doing it."

In bed that night, Mrs Beauchamp thought, at least that's broken the rule of pre-holiday disasters coming in threes. Dervla, then Ethan… thank goodness it all looks fine now."

It never occurred to her that the final disaster would actually happen later, at the resort…


	21. Chapter 21

They reached St Pancras at 8.45 the next day; they'd been puzzled because Eurostar didn't leave until 9.53. Cal had to ask, of course.

"Why are we hanging about here Mrs Beauchamp? We could have been in bed a bit longer."

"Because we need to check in all the luggage, and go through security, Cal. Now, as I mentioned yesterday, I'll be keeping all your passports and spending money safe with me. I'll continue to keep your passports safe for the whole trip, but you can have any spending money you need on request."

"I need some!" said Ethan for the sake of it. Everybody laughed.

"Toilets don't cost that much!" Cal grinned.

"Shut up teasing me about toilets, it's mean!" yelled Ethan, who just wanted Disney to start now.

"He has a point, Cal. The first two times it was funny but it's getting silly now."

"Oh… okay, Mrs Beauchamp."

She had to smile. A year ago Cal would have argued loudly with her. Now he did more or less anything she wanted.

"I'm glad you've got the passports, I'd have been scared to death of losing mine." Lofty was relieved that all the stuff like that would be taken care of.

"Don't worry Ben, nothing to be afraid of on this trip", Miss Freechamp assured him. Famous last words…

Despite the rest of the kids acting streetwise and trying to pretend they weren't worried, they all heaved a sigh of relief when luggage check-in and passports were done, and it was time to get on the train.

"Oooh! Are we in First Class?" Jeff grinned round, loving his comfortable seat. This time Robyn, Ben, Jess and Jeff had been allowed to sit together.

"No, Jeff, this is standard class."

Mrs Beauchamp left the news that they'd be travelling back in First Class as a treat for when the holiday was all but over.

Zax were opposite Noel and Louise. Louise tried to look snooty about Zax holding hands, but she was too excited.

Cal and Ethan had the two seats that were together, as arranged by Mrs Beauchamp earlier. True to his word, Cal didn't mention that they were near the toilets, even though he wanted to say they weren't stinky like normal second class train toilets.

Then there was a big cheer as the train pulled out.

A long way into the ride Ethan gave a little sob as the train seemed to be in a dark tunnel for a long, long time.

"Mrs Beauchamp told us we would be, remember, Ethan, and said it wasn't anything to be afraid of." Cal was anxious to reassure his 'baby' brother.

A little behind them, Lofty's eyes were wide and concerned:

"Poor Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman went to the toilet at the wrong time and now they're stuck in that nasty dark tunnel…"

He couldn't understand why Mr Keogh suddenly began to laugh loudly. Mr Keogh wasn't normally cruel. Maybe it was relief that Dervla had just started to be able to use her poor leg again.

But what he really didn't understand was when Mr Keogh chuckled:

"I've heard of the mile-high club but this…."

Ms Chao rolled her eyes.

The train came wooshing out of the tunnel and five minutes later Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman were safely back.

And not too long after that, there was a squeal from Robyn and she pointed in the distance.

"Awww!" Robyn and Jess

"It's pretty." Lofty.

"Wonder if there's a dungeon?" Jeff.

"We should go in there." Zax.

"We're here! Cal, we're here! Ben, we're here! Jeff, we're….." Ethan.

It really was Disneyland when you could see Sleeping Beauty's castle.

A/N I can't actually remember if the castle was visible from the train, but what the heck, it is in this story.


	22. Chapter 22

They were finally off Eurostar, nice as it was, and the teachers had done all the boring stuff at Marne La Vallee Station for them.

"Mrs Beauchamp, is that Disney?" asked Ethan, pointing to what looked like a set of buildings decorated in pink and looking like something from a fairy story.

"No Ethan, that's our hotel."

Shouts and squeals of joy.

"We can't go in yet, because it's not quite check-in time, and you guys must be hungry. Who wants to go to Annette's diner in Disney Village, then look around a bit and back to the hotel to unpack, then back out to see the parks lit up later?"

"Me!" squeaked Mr Keogh who seemed like a different person in the resort.

Annette's diner was perfect for the kids. They had burgers with salad, then ice cream to follow, with sugar free cola to drink. The teachers had more or less the same but replaced the cola with tea or coffee. Everybody liked the catchy music that was playing. Suddenly the waiters and waitresses stopped serving, and jumped on to the counters. They began to jive. Soon all the diners were laughing and clapping along.

They walked through Disney Village which was full of shops and food places, and Miss Freeman pointed to a building:

"That's where you're going to eat tonight."

Buffalo Bill's Diner, said the sign. The kids thought it was just another place to eat, but it looked nice.

"Now you can have some of your spending money on request – hold it, Ethan! – but I'd advise you to just look for now. We'll be going on a trip to a shopping centre on Wednesday to break things up a little, and you might want to save your money for then."

They saw a big fat air balloon further on near the lake.

"Oooh can we….?"

"Maybe tomorrow evening, Zoe," Ms Chao replied, "We've got lots to do today."

Max felt squashed because Zoe had spoken without him, so she squeezed his hand and he soon cheered up.

"Now…." Announced Mr Keogh dramatically.

Mrs Beauchamp handed over their all-day passes, and then there they were. On Main Street, at the heart of Disneyland itself.

An exit took them to Fantasyland, and they looked round for a while, then Ethan begged to go on the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups.

"Okay, if you think you've let your lunch settle. We don't want you throwing up."

"I don't think I've any more throwing up left after last month."

"Thank you for sharing that with us, Ethan."

They went on the teacups and enjoyed themselves, even Ms Chao.

More walking through Fantasyland to settle their guts, then the teachers steered all the kids to Main Street again. They wondered why they were standing around waiting but trusted the teachers. People began to stand behind them and wait. Then they heard the music, and suddenly there was a parade with people dancing and singing, and big decorated lorries – Miss Freeman said they were called Floats – with Disney characters on them. There were the scary people as well as the nice ones. Captain Hook brandished his hook menacingly at the crowd, and Lofty, seeing Mrs Beauchamp pretending to cringe back, whispered to her:

"Don't worry, Mrs Beauchamp, it's only a man dressed up. I won't let him get you."

Mrs Beauchamp's voice went a little croaky after that.

Cal's arms were round his little brother.

"He won't hurt you, Ethan, look, there's Peter Pan to stop him."

Along came the 1001 Dalmatians on a massive float, with Cruella De Vil shaking her fist at the crowd.

"I wonder if I remembered to tell Ms Dixon that Dervla will only eat beef flavoured…"

"DYLAN! She knows what she's doing!" sighed Ms Chao.

Then came Ethan's big moment! Mickey Mouse was on the next float with Minnie… and he looked straight at Ethan and waved.

"Mickey likes me!"

Much as he was loving the parade, Ben suddenly felt very tiny and a little afraid. He couldn't say why, but he was.

"Okay there Ben?"

Lofty pulled himself together.

"Ooh yes Mr Keogh."

"Okay guys" Mrs Beauchamp said after the last of the parade had passed and the crowds were breaking up, "Time to go back to the hotel and get unpacked. We'll help you."

"Is it an awful long walk?" Ethan said.

"No, Ethan… our hotel's just through here. We're staying right at the entrance, look!"

"Oh, wow."

After unpacking there was time for another visit to Fantasyland. Mrs Beauchamp wanted them to save their fasttrack passes for the next day as she said dinner would take a long time.

"Can't we just have a short dinner and some rides tonight?"

"No, Louise, dinner's booked."

Louise pouted. Noel was glad he was sharing a room with the boys for the rest of the week. Zoe wished she was sharing a room with Max instead of with the girls, but it wasn't allowed.

"It's just looking round tonight so you can see the park lit up."

"It's nice" said Lofty.

"Yeah!" Ethan endorsed.

They walked back in time for their dinner at Buffalo Bill's diner. But it wasn't just a diner. It was a Wild West show with a meal included!

They knew it was going to be magic when they were handed cowboy hats to wave. And when a herd of bison ran in without anybody seemingly in charge of them, they knew it was proper magic. Even Louise was giggling and cheering by the end of the show.

The sleepy little group walked back the short distance to the hotel later.

"What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?" asked Mr Keogh.

They all gave up.

"You can't wash your hands in a buffalo."

Groans all round.


	23. Chapter 23

The next day was wonderful for teachers and pupils alike. The teachers knocked at the doors of the room shared by the girls, then the one for the boys, with a call that breakfast was in ten minutes and to be waiting to be helped downstairs in five.

The teachers expected protests, and 'five more minutes please' comments.

Instead most of the kids were outside the doors and ready in just under two minutes.

"Hey it's only quarter to seven", Jeff commented.

"Mm. Maybe there are big fat long queues for breakfast." Lofty tried to be the voice of reason, as usual.

Miss Freeman, wearing Mickey Mouse ears, came to collect the giggling groups. Zax held hands all the way downstairs to make up for the whole night they'd been apart. Jeff wanted to bound downstairs two at a time but remembered where he was. Despite the early hour, Ethan's eyes were sparkling.

They assembled in the Inventions restaurant and their eyes nearly popped.

Mrs Beauchamp, Mr Keogh and – and – yes, Ms Chao were all wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

The teachers helped the kids round the buffet, advising them here and there:

"Ethan, darling, you need to have something like cereal – three Danish pastries will make you slow later."

"Robyn, you're on holiday and you've got some nice Weetabix there, of course you should have a pastry as well if you like."

"I thought you'd be too grand and dignified for Mickey Mouse", Louise said to Ms Chao.

"Back at school I shall be dignified, but this week is special and I shall be Disneyfied!"

Ms Chao had made a joke! What a holiday!

Mrs Beauchamp explained the reason for the early start.

"Guests at our hotel get a special treat, it's called extra magic hours. Instead of having to wait till ten to go into the parks, we can go in at eight."

"Oooh!"

"So you can see why three Danish pastries wouldn't have been good, Ethan."

Ethan sighed and ate his yoghurt which was nice enough, but he just knew he could have managed three pastries.

He was very glad he'd been persuaded to have yoghurt instead when he was whirling around on the Dumbo ride, with Ms Chao – another of his fantasy girlfriends – holding on to him.

It was in the Alice In Wonderland maze that a most wonderful thing happened.

They heard the shrill voice:

"Vernon! Get a move on!"

"But I can't find you" came a whining, familiar voice. The last time Lofty had heard that voice, it was when his Alien comic had been mercilessly ripped into four and thrown in the bin.

"DAD! Stop messing! We've loads more to see and the studios too! We go home tomorrow and we'll hate you if we miss anything!"

"C-can you come and help me?" wailed Vernon who was clearly dominated by wife and daughters in real life.

"Allow me" said Mr Keogh, who was savouring his moment of revenge.

"Still bullying six year olds or have you found other employment? My name's Dylan Keogh; I'm from Holby Mixed Infants."

Vernon grovelled.

"Please don't tell my wife; I wasn't even qualified; I just grabbed at the job."

Mr Keogh practically pushed the snivelling Vernon in the direction of his bawling family and came back to the Mixed Infants with a serene smile on his face.

For the Holby crew, the whole day was wonderful. They tried most of the rides, except the two big ones, Pirates and Phantom Manor, that were being kept back for Thursday. Lunch was a picnic near Adventureland – all the kids, not just the boys, gasped in wonder on seeing the pirate ship, which everybody explored to their hearts' content later. They rode the railroad, which took them all round the resort, enjoyed another parade – 'yes, there's a parade every day, Ethan!' – and after going back to change, enjoyed an evening meal in Café Mickey. Ethan was nearly speechless with glee when none other than Donald Duck sat down next to him.

The next day came a visit to the La Vallee shopping centre, just to break up the magic enough to keep it exciting. Mr Keogh had been the nominated teacher who was trusted not to snitch about the present and he had some wonderful ideas about gifts for the ladies. While they were all talking to him and listening intently as far as he could see, cheeky Max slipped away from them for a moment to buy the nicest wallet ever for Mr Keogh himself, as planned in an emergency Zax meeting before breakfast.

Then it was back to the resort and off to the Studios.


	24. Chapter 24

The studios were just as entertaining as they'd all expected, and as usual Ethan managed to cause hilarity by asking if he could go on the Stinky Dog ride.

"I think that'd be Slinky Dog. But yes, Mrs Beauchamp and myself will take you on it."

The word 'dog' had started Mr Keogh off again.

"I hope Dixie remembers that Dervla likes the blue cushion to sleep with."

Ethan and the others enjoyed their ride while Mr Keogh fretted about Dervla.

"Why not go on the hotel Wifi tonight and e mail Dixie?" suggested Ms Chao.

"At their prices?!"

"Whip round for Mr Keogh" Ms Chao and then stopped when she saw Lofty frantically scrabbling in his bag. Sometimes the kids took jokes too literally.

Ethan pouted a bit when he was told that no way could he go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride.

"You'd be ill", Cal told him.

"You're just under the age group … all of you are… and we're not going on it and leaving you lot on your own" quipped Miss Freeman. At the time her words seemed funny.

"I'm going on it; it'll take my mind off Dervla", Mr Keogh announced and began to stride in the direction of the white-knuckle attraction.

Then he saw the size of the queue and strode back.

Even though they'd been forewarned about the Catastrophe Canyon part of the Tram Tours ride, the kids and Miss Freeman still howled like banshees when the lorry opposite the tram burst into flames, the heat reaching the sides of the tram, and then the next second when a dam burst, sploshing everybody with water.

"Love your wet t shirt look", Mrs Beauchamp whispered to Miss Freeman.

There was just time to head back to the Disneyland Park again, and go to see 'Winnie the Pooh and Friends Too' song and dance show. Everybody loved it, though the Heffalumps scared Ethan and Zoe, but Zoe was able to hold Max's hand hard.

After the show Ethan said quite loudly:

"Mrs Beauchamp before we go back I want a Pooh."

"Ethan, remember we don't shout about things like that, and didn't you just go before the show?"

"Not a pooh, Mrs Beauchamp, a Pooh Bear from that stall. Can I have my money?"

Mr Keogh gave one of his rare laughs.

"Mr Keogh, why don't you get a toy dog from the stall to hug until you get back to Dervla?" asked Robyn with no trace whatever of sarcasm.

The other teachers expected Mr Keogh to lose his temper, but he gave one of his quick smiles.

"Do you know, I think I will. Come and help me choose one, Robyn."

Lofty looked sadly at the toy kittens.

"I think Eric Chiltern might try to kill one of those kittens if I got one."

Then Zax came up with the brilliant idea of getting a Gang Mascot that could sit in on meetings back at school.

Snap the Crocodile was a favourite with all the kids at once.

Finally, it was time to change at the hotel and then set out for another exciting meal, thanks to the generous prize from the New Theatre.

They went to L'Auberge de Cendrillon, and knew it was something to do with Cinderella.

They didn't expect Disney Princes and Princesses to turn up during the meal and to sing and dance. Or for Cinderella to cuddle all the boys. (Jeff fell in love on the spot.) And especially not for Prince Charming to kiss Mrs Beauchamp's hand.

"I'm not tired yet", said Miss Freeman, after they'd put all the kids to bed.

"Why don't we have a walk to Hurricanes Nightclub then? Dylan? Lily? You coming?"

"I'm going to take out a second mortgage and go on the WIFI", replied Mr Keogh.

"I would like to read my book in bed" Ms Chao explained.

"Okay, then, see you tomorrow."

Sadly, the decision to go to the nightclub was going to have consequences that would give Mrs Beachamp nightmares for months to come. But for now, it would be dancing the night away, then later on, wearing nothing but their Mickey Mouse ears….


	25. Chapter 25

Warning: This plot is going to become very dark and adult content is included. It's also quite Lofty-centred, but I have tried to include the rest of the group as far as possible.

A big shout out to Gypsy Abby for the mouse ears idea!

Next morning Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman had the mother of all hangovers and tempers were short. They managed to go down to supervise the group at breakfast, wisely avoiding going near any of the cooked food. Everything was going fine until Lofty dropped his tray, complete with cereal, yoghurt and fruit drink.

"Oh Ben, not again, why do you have to be so…" Mrs Beauchamp just stopped herself saying 'clumsy' but the damage was done. Lofty felt as if he'd been slapped.

"No problem, monsieur", the kindly waitress said, hurrying over to Lofty and steering him to a quiet table. She sensed that the small boy needed some time apart, "I will get you a new tray of food."

"Please, just yoghurt and a drink", Lofty whispered to her. He felt that his throat was closing up on him.

Mr Keogh looked over and gave him a wink. Then he looked at Mrs Beauchamp.

"Maybe you two ladies should ignore the partying tonight, we're going home tomorrow", was all he said but Mrs Beauchamp knew it was a reprimand from him for snapping at Lofty.

"I think you're right", she replied quietly.

Things were almost back to normal by lunchtime. They had another picnic bought from one of the service carts as it was the visit to Planet Hollywood – the final big treat – that night.

"Max" Zoe said bossily but at least quietly, "Go and get Ben's lunch so he doesn't have to. He likes cheese salad sandwiches and vanilla mousse, and flavoured water."

"Good grief, they're like an old married couple already", commented Mr Keogh, highly amused.

Ethan didn't think Mrs Beauchamp was cross with him but wasn't pushing his luck. In fact the whole gang were quite subdued up till the afternoon.

By then, Mrs Beauchamp's painkillers and a strong but warm breeze had almost brought her back to her normal self. She wanted to apologise to Lofty but knew that he was more likely to want to say he was sorry first, and if he did that, she knew she would break down. She'd snapped at Cal or Taylor before when they were still behaving very badly, but never at quiet little Ben. And all because she didn't know when to lay off the cocktails.

So the afternoon went on and the group moved towards one of the 'treats' they'd been saving for today, the last full day and night of the holiday. Pirates of the Caribbean.

And there was Captain Jack Sparrow waiting at the entrance, signing autographs.

"Where's your autograph book Ms Chao? It's Johnny Depp!" Ethan grinned.

"He is a very convincing Captain Jack, but he is not Johnny, Ethan."

Ethan felt a little squashed until she grinned and added:

"But I shall have my photograph with him; who has a camera?"

Several cameras were offered.

"I want to take this one", Miss Freeman, who had recovered much sooner than Mrs Beauchamp, giggled.

What a sight, thought Cal, gleefully, scary Ms Chao having a big fat snuggly cuddle with Captain Jack Sparrow!

Miss Freeman said there was plenty of time for autographs to be signed, and even Lofty, who was at that stage of being crushed earlier where he was feeling shy and scared and unsure of the teachers now, got the famous pirate's signature.

The group turned towards the entrance, and made their way down it, Lofty still hanging back shyly. The way down to the boats they would be riding was very dark and suddenly, to his humiliation, Lofty tripped over. By the time he'd struggled to his feet, the group had gone ahead. He didn't want to shout to them as that would be admitting he'd been clumsy again. But he was scared. Which way was it?

"Pardon me, my friend, are you lost?"

Lofty had been warned about talking to strange men, but at nearly seven years old, he couldn't imagine a bad man coming to Disney.

"I've lost my class and my headmistress – it's really dark "

"Give me your hand; I shall take you to your friends."

Trustingly, Lofty took the man's hand. The man began to lead him along, then suddenly turned.

He was all but dragging the small boy away from the group.

"Please, you're-"

The man shook him roughly.

"Listen, and do not annoy me. You are my little boy now, and you will come with me. If you shout out to anybody for help, I will stab you. Not in the heart, so you die quickly. In the gut, so you will die crying in pain. Do you understand me?"

Lofty, his face white, understood.


	26. Chapter 26

As the kids waited for a boat to turn up, Robyn decided she'd better put in a request for her 'finance' to sit with her. Then she realised, and said in a small voice:

"Mrs Beauchamp, where's Ben?"

Mrs Beauchamp's quick eyes scanned the group… dear God, no. How could they have missed him, quiet as he was? Part of her wanted to shake the small boy hard for going missing – was this some childish form of revenge from him? – and part of her was feeling sick.

Abandoning the ride, they retraced their footsteps, apologising to those they jostled on the way.

Lofty's soul was numb. Cal had told him what men did when they grabbed small children and he knew that was going to happen to him. Unless the stabbing happened first.

As the man dragged him – the pressure on Lofty's arm was really hurting him now – away from the ride, and in the direction of the exit from the parks, he suddenly saw them. The gang, looking worried to death, and the teachers pale-faced.

The man followed his line of vision.

"Think of the knife."

Lofty suddenly had enough. He would rather be stabbed and killed, however much it hurt, than go and live with the horrible man. If he couldn't be with his Mum and Dad, his friends and teachers, and Eric Chiltern, he wanted to be dead.

Hurting his throat to the point of agony, he yelled as loudly as he could:

"Mrs Beauchamp! Please come and get me!"

The next minute there was a savage pain and the world swam before his eyes.

Later he would remember it all. How the man – who had lied about the knife – had punched him hard in the back. How he'd been pushed over and thought the crowds would trample him. How two kind ladies helped him to his feet and hugged him, making him wince with pain.

And most of all, how Mr Keogh had run over to them, and had got the man by the throat and had shaken him like a rat. How the man had stumbled away coughing horribly, and had tried to run for it but been stopped by two of the park guides.

But now Mrs Beauchamp's arms were round him and she wasn't cross any more. She was just saying "Oh Ben, sweetheart…" over and over again.

Ethan was howling in sympathy.

"Come on, Ethan, Ben's safe now; he's gone to have some treatment for his back and then the police want a statement from him and Mrs Beauchamp. They'll be joining us later and this time we'll make sure we keep an eye on him all the time."

"You were a hero, Mr Keogh", Robyn said shyly.

"Thank you, Robyn. If I'd been any angrier I'd have choked that bugger on the spot and got myself a record with the French police." Mr Keogh made no apology for swearing.

Louise was crying as hard as Ethan.

"Louise, it's all right."

"No it's not Miss Freeman, I'm a bad person. I was cross with Ben for holding us all up and making us miss the Pirate ride."

"We've a day left; we can go on rides till half past four tomorrow," Ms Chao tried to reassure her.

"But I'm bad…."

"Hey come on. Ben's been saved. That's the main thing."

Zoe wanted to buy Lofty a present but Max surprisingly said no.

"Presents remind people of things. Ben won't want reminding about today."

"Very wise, Max. He'll want a bit of kindness and understanding. But go easy on hugging him in case you hurt his back. I can't believe that piece of offal punched him in the kidneys."

The police were very kind, they told Lofty he was a brave boy to shout out. The Police Doctor gave him an injection to take away the pain in his back, and a lemon and honey drink for his sore throat.

"You may take him back now, Madame. He will maybe need to come over here again when the case goes to trial, but for now, take him for a long drink and some ice cream."

Mrs Beauchamp's heart ached. Physically ached. Because of one crazy night out and her bad temper, she might have been having to make an agonising phone call to Ben's parents. And even now he was subdued, as he would be, but he showed no signs of being angry with her. She wanted him to snap at her, even lash out.

But he just put his small hand into hers as she helped him towards the taxi that would take them back to the hotel.

The Maitre D at Inventions Restaurant had seen what had happened on the local news.

"This is on the house", he said as he settled Mrs Beauchamp and Lofty into a private booth, with a large plate of ice cream and a fruit drink.

After he'd been able to sip some of the drink and eat his ice cream, Lofty whispered:

"Mrs Beauchamp, I know what that man was going to do with me later."

She shivered, but needed to hear it.

"Go on, Ben."

"Cal told me and Ethan. They take them as slaves. And the kids have to get up at six when they've been to bed at five and they have to work and work. But if they stop, the people who take them can kill them."

Thank God for Cal. Ben's innocence hadn't been affected.

"No, they can't kill them, Ben. Nobody can kill a child and not be punished. But you're right. That's what they do."

Zax held an emergency meeting for nearly all the members before the evening's entertainment.

"Now we've got to keep a watch on Ben all tomorrow and make sure he's not alone. If he wakes up in the night and cries, one of the boys has to hug him, but mind his back. If he needs a wee a boy has to go in with him."

Ethan was still weepy.

"He could have been taken to ROME as a slave."

"Well he wasn't. Mr Keogh saved him. Come on Ethan, he needs you to be smiley for him. And if he wants a cuddle of Snap nobody else has got to stop him."

Ethan sighed. He loved the new toy crocodile but knew it was a gang mascot and only Zax could order who held it.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: Thanks for all those lovely reviews, I did enjoy building up the tension in the last two chapters. Hope I've not neglected the other characters too much, by the way. A disclaimer: I'm sure all the staff at Planet Hollywood are lovely but for the purpose of this story I'm giving one a mean streak. Finally, sorry about the Castiel reference, I couldn't resist it.

"Now you're sure you feel up to coming out, Ben? Remember we're going to be really careful with you and never let you be on your own now."

Lofty had made his decision.

"Please Mr Keogh, if I stay here in the hotel I might go to sleep and have bad dreams. If I go back to the parks we'll be doing stuff and that'll stop me thinking."

"Good lad. Now we've just time for Pirates before dinner, are you okay with going there again?"

A deep breath.

"Yes thanks Mr Keogh."

"Then off we go."

The dark passage down to the Pirates ride wasn't as scary with Mr Keogh's hand to hold. Lofty did shudder a little when he recalled the afternoon's terror, but he knew he had to make himself get over it. He wanted to come back to Disney one day. Supposing he and Robyn had kids (he wasn't quite sure how this worked) and he was too scared to take them?

As for the ride, it was brilliant. Sitting between Miss Freeman and Mr Keogh, Lofty was able to enjoy all the thrills of the ride.

He was even able to feel smug on Robyn's account when they passed the slave auction – though a little shiver still went down his spine thinking of slaves – when all the ladies who were to be sold were lined up and the pirates shouted "We wants the redhead!" He thought of himself when he was fourteen, asking Robyn if she'd marry him (an engagement wasn't enough, boys had to ask for marriage as well, Robyn had said.) How he could say in a jokey way "I wants the redhead."

He was surprised at how not scared he was after all. He didn't realise that fear can often bring a delayed reaction.

Miss Freeman insisted on buying a huge Jack Sparrow bath towel, she had the luggage allowance for it and she wanted to walk round in nothing but that later to try and get poor Connie to chill out and smile.

The kids had been warned not to fuss Lofty too much in case it was too much for him. They'd all wanted to ask him to sit next to them at the meal, but Mr Keogh had said too many requests could confuse him.

"He can sit between Mrs Beauchamp and myself."

Sample menus from Planet Hollywood had been downloaded and printed from the Internet, and everybody's choices had been phoned in beforehand.

When the group arrived, one of the waitresses, a little over zealous about food wastage, was very sharp with Lofty.

"You should not make us cook a meal for you and then decide you only wish for soup and ice cream. It is an unfair waste of food."

She muttered something under her breath in French about Lofty having 'probably been stuffing sweets all day.' Mrs Beauchamp had an excellent knowledge of French and faced her down, answering the woman in her own language:

"He has not been stuffing sweets, as you so impolitely put it. He was almost grabbed by a paedophile" – Mrs Beauchamp felt safe to say this in French – "And had to nearly scream his throat raw to get our attention. If you had spent more time reading the paper and less time polishing your own halo, Mademoiselle Castielle, you would have seen this."

The waitress, not being familiar with Supernatural, didn't recognise the reference to the famous trench-coated angel. Mr Keogh, who certainly did watch the programme and adored Castiel, gave one of his loud dry chuckles.

Miss Freeman fell in love with her line manager all over again.

"Celestine!"

The manager called the waitress over. She apologised profusely to him and to the party, but the manager still sent her to another table, and asked his most pleasant waiter, Pierre, to serve the Holby party."

The result was that the entire table received excellent service and as a joke, a plate of salad and chopped meats was put in front of 'Monsieur Snap' with the other starters, the amiable young waiter telling the others that they could share the platter with the crocodile. Pierre was allowed to cuddle Snap, which was immortalised in a photo, and even Ethan cheered. The platter was completely clean by the end of the evening and Pierre received a tip that made his smile even wider.

Ben seemed to be reasonably settled by the end of the evening.

"I want to be a pirate when I'm big" Ethan declared as they all walked back to the hotel.

"You'd have to make people walk the plank and drown them" Cal told him.

"I'd make all the men prisoners walk the plank but I'd keep all the lady prisoners as my wives."

"Waste not, want not" Mr Keogh said drily and amazingly Ms Chao went into a fit of giggles, that could have been a nervous reaction after the frightening day.

"I want to be a waiter and to do nice things for people at my tables", Max grinned.

Funnily enough it was Max, not Ben, who had the nightmare later. Max had realised just what a chance he had taken by slipping off on his own to buy the wallet. He imagined doing it again and being grabbed by a man, and awoke screaming. It almost broke Zoe's heart that she wasn't allowed to go in to him but Jeff, risking a reprimand about breaking the rules, came to tap at the girls' door and let Zoe know Max was having a big fat man hug from everybody.

Ben had been the first one to run over to comfort Max.

Meanwhile, poor Mrs Beauchamp was having a waking nightmare.

"Connie, sweetheart, please don't suffer like this. Everybody loses their temper now and then."

"Can you imagine the call I'd have been making to Ben's parents? 'I'm sorry, Mr and Mrs Chiltern, but your son's dead because I scared him so much earlier he was afraid to shout for help?' It could have happened, Rita, and all because I couldn't stop glugging stupid cocktails."

"Ben's alive and well, he's safe in that room two doors down with five crazy kids. Come on, sweetheart."

"I just want him to come right out and say he hates me, or to ask me why I snarled at him. Oh Rita…"

And the cool, poised Headmistress broke down weeping in her girlfriend's arms.

After a while, Rita thought it safe to say:

"Now come on, silly, have some of Auntie Rita's remedy."

"NOT if you're my bloody Auntie! Now go and put the light on and get yourself into that Jack Sparrow bath towel."

Rita knew Connie was putting a brave face on things, but she was happy to play along. Eventually they both collapsed into a good night's sleep.


	28. Chapter 28

The next morning, Lofty, when asked who he'd like to sit with him at breakfast, replied shyly:

"Mrs Beauchamp, please."

With some trepidation she came and sat beside him, bringing her tray over. The waitress had again helped Lofty, asking what he wanted to eat and drink, and sorting out his tray for him.

He took a small sip of his drink and then said:

"Mrs Beauchamp, I've two things to say."

She waited for the outburst, but her throat grew tight when he almost whispered:

"Mrs Beauchamp, I'm sorry I was clumsy and brought shame on the school yesterday at breakfast."

"Ben, sweetheart, you need to listen to me. You were not clumsy. You were very unlucky and dropped your tray. And… Ben, I snapped at you because I'd been really stupid and drank too many cocktails, and so my head hurt and I was mean to you because of that. Will you forgive me?"

He wanted to give her a big fat hug but knew he could knock all the food over, so he just beamed at her and nodded.

"And what's the other thing, Ben?"

"Please, when we get home tonight, do I have to tell my mum and dad what happened? Because they'd worry. And they might say I can't come to your school any more. And I'd be in bits if they said that."

Mrs Beauchamp's heart sank. If Ben was called back to give evidence later, his nightmare could start all over again.

"But what if… if you have bad dreams?"

"I can pretend I got scared in Phantom Manor today."

"O…kay. Looking forward to Phantom Manor?"

"Loads… but can somebody keep hold of my hand when we're walking?"

"Bet you Mr Keogh will."

Mrs Beauchamp wanted Mr Keogh to look after Lofty for a particular reason. She herself needed to talk to Cal. She had her chance when, cases all packed and left at the hotel to be sent straight to the station for retrieval later, they all walked the short distance to the parks for the last time.

"Cal, can I have a quiet word?"

Cal nodded, but wondered what he'd done.

They drew aside from the others.

"You know what you told Ben and Ethan, about the bad guys taking kids as slaves? Is that what you think really happens?"

Cal sighed.

"No, Mrs Beauchamp. I overheard Dad on about it. It's…" he shuddered, "Dead disgusting. But I had to tell our Ethan something last year because he kept nagging and nagging to walk down to the Haunted Playground after school on his own. Said he wasn't afraid of no ghosts. So I told him about the slaves and he got scared and won't go there at all now, not even with me. Oh, Mrs Beauchamp, I kept thinking yesterday about Ben and…" once more the small boy shuddered, all his confidence gone again.

"Ben's safe, and you were clever to make up that story, Cal."

"Mrs Beeeeeauchamp! Louise has got Snap and she won't let me hold him!"

"Our Ethan!" Cal half-sighed, half-giggled.


	29. Chapter 29

The truth was, Ethan was a little jealous of the attention Lofty had been receiving, little realising that it was the last thing the older boy actually wanted. Ethan's six-year-old mind could not grasp how close Lofty had come to going through a living hell, with worse to follow.

"Ethan, you'll have to take your turn with Snap. He's the Gang Mascot."

Ethan actually glared at his beloved Lily.

"Bet BEN'd get him if he asked for him", he growled.

Lofty tried to pretend he wasn't there.

"Ethan, come here a minute."

Cal decided to take charge and pulled his stroppy little brother aside.

"Ethan I've not told you the worst bit. If Ben hadn't worked hard enough that man could have fed him to the lions. Just like in ancient Rome. He could have rung up a pet agency and ordered two lions and then thrown Ben to them."

Ethan shivered, imagining those big jaws closing in.

"Want to go back and talk to everybody now?"

"Y-yeah."

Cal gave him a man hug and back they went.

"Ben I'm sorry."

"That's all right. Want a sweet?"

"Want a sweet?" was the usual Gang way of patching up a quarrel.

"Yes please."

"Okay. Here you go. Look, Ms Chao looks really sad."

Ethan, not unwrapping his sweet until he'd spoken to Ms Chao, went over to her and hugged her.

"Sorry Ms Chao."

"Not a problem Ethan. Look, we're at the park."

The group were pleased that Mrs Beauchamp had organised the FastPass tickets so well. They had tickets for two of the park favourites, Peter Pan's flight and Phantom Manor.

"Isn't Peter Pan for babies, Miss Freeman?"

"Absolutely not, Louise. You wait and see."

The kids loved Peter Pan's flight. Once seated in their galleons, it really had looked as if they were going to crash straight through the bedroom window until it opened suddenly and they were among the stars. Then they turned right at the second star and there was Neverland.

The kids were so riveted that they didn't realise Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman were on their own little flight of joy. They thought it was just excitement at going to Neverland when both teachers sounded a little breathless afterwards.

"That was a cracking good ride, but I think I like Pirates of the Caribbean more" commented Jeff.

"Captain Hook's not sexy like Captain Jack Sparrow."

"Robyn Miller!" Mrs Beauchamp had got her breath back.

Ms Chao decided it was time to make Ethan feel more responsible.

"Ethan, I want to go on 'It's a Small World' but I'll look such a baby in a boat on my own. Will you sit with me?"

"Yeah!"

"It's A Small World" was corny but cute, and, more important for Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman, dark.

"I'm going to tell Dervla just what you two have been up to when I get back", Mr Keogh teased them.

"Well don't blame me if she barks to be let out" was Mrs Beauchamp's deadpan reply.

After a picnic lunch – with Lofty looking nervously round once or twice as they sat and ate on the benches – it was time for the highlight of the day. Phantom Manor.

"I ain't afraid of no ghosts", sang Ethan, his good humour completely restored.

They walked off their lunch by going through Frontierland and up the long path to the Manor.

Soon they were in a dimly lit room listening to a voice telling them what they were in for. Just before they started to sink, due to standing in an invisible lift, they saw the photos on the wall changing. Instead of being scared, Ethan was enchanted because there was a big fat alligator ready to gobble up the lady on the sagging tightrope. But Ethan was happy to think it was a crocodile like Snap.

"Okay, Ben, steady now…." Mr Keogh warned Lofty as they ended up in the basement… and the moving walkway was under their feet. Lofty was grateful for the warning, as he'd dreaded suddenly tripping up again.

They climbed into their Doom Buggies, the kids helped by the guides, and then the adventure began for real!


	30. Chapter 30

The ride was the best ever; scary and magical. Zax held hands tightly all the way. The buggies set off through dimly lit corridors, then the seats suddenly turned around and stopped. The kids thought the ride was broken but then heard the voice saying the spirits had taken over the ride.

From then on they were taken through not only a haunted house, but the haunted town outside the house. Robyn felt so sorry for the poor bride whose husband to be was murdered by the nasty Phantom. Jeff and Max liked the way the phantom kept appearing and how the poor bride stayed in the house, getting older and older, waiting for her groom to come to her. Robyn loved the haunted ballroom with ghostly dancers whirling around. Cal's favourite was the haunted town. Especially when the mayor took off his hat and his head to greet visitors. Lofty enjoyed the ride and the changing scenes but had learned that demons could appear in daylight and look just like men. The ghosts didn't scare him as they would have a year ago.

And Ethan? He didn't see a thing because as soon as the first ghost appeared, he buried his head in Ms Chao's lap and stayed there till it was time to get off the ride.

Mr Keogh knew full well that there'd been far more interesting things happening behind him with Mrs Beauchamp and her frisky girlfriend, but was more concerned with watching Lofty.

And, finally, they were all walking out of the park for the last time, looking back at Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and waving bye bye to Disney.

After Bag Retrieval at the station, they boarded the train and the kids were thrilled at finding they were going to sit in First Class and have Train Food!

"You'll not get home till well after ten, so we thought you'd want to eat on board, then you'll be able to get straight off to bed."

As they waited for their meal, Mr Keogh read the local paper he'd picked up. He suddenly went racing down to Mrs Beauchamp and Miss Freeman, who fortunately hadn't yet begun their Train Fun.

"Connie!"

Mrs Beauchamp took the paper and read the page in front of her. Serge Gaston, 44, who had been arrested for the attempted abduction of Benjamin Chiltern, aged six and a half, had been found hanged in his cell while awaiting trial.

"Bloody coward", Miss Freeman muttered. Mr Keogh shook his head.

"Don't kid yourself it was suicide, Rita. Hardened crooks will find ways to break into cells, and even hardened crooks love their own little ones. I think he had a little surprise visit…"

"I don't get how he managed to get into Disney with all the security", Ms Chao said.

"This was his first offence, no criminal record before. The bastard must have been walking through the parks, taking his chance…"

But Connie Beauchamp was crying in relief. Now there wouldn't be a trial, Ben never needed to come back here, and the worst of his nightmare was over.

The Train Food was delicious and the ride was soon over. The procedures at St Pancras was swift, and the mini bus was waiting to pick them all up. Most of the kids dozed off on the ride.

Lofty was walking through a pitch dark Disneyland. He'd lost the Gang and had five minutes before he had to catch the train back. Then he felt somebody grab his arm and heard that hated voice. He jerked awake, his face a sickly yellow colour.

"Can you stop please, one of the boys needs to be ill." Ms Chao requested sharply.

Without a word of protest, the mini bus driver stopped and Lofty hurried to the front.

Mr Keogh helped him to a quiet patch of grass. The small boy just made it in time and was violently ill.

"Come on Ben, I've got a bottle of water for you back on the bus. Fit to get moving?"

Lofty nodded wearily.

The first thing he saw when he climbed back on the bus was Ethan holding Snap out to him.

"Thanks Ethan, I need a cuddle."

Lofty settled down with Snap close to his chest, and managed to sleep until the bus pulled up outside his home. He handed the precious crocodile over to Ethan again as he walked uncertainly down the steps. Mr Keogh saw him to the door where his mum and dad were waiting, whispered "See you on Monday, hero" and then boarded the bus again.

Lofty's sleep was dreamless for the rest of the night.

But Mr Keogh, even though he had Dervla to soothe him, couldn't help remembering what the little boy's parents had said to him:

"Hello, darling, I hope you've not been clumsy for your teachers."


	31. Chapter 31

Monday morning came round, and even though their trip was now just a memory, the kids were still excited. They had their presents to hand over to the teachers who'd looked after them on the holiday.

Lofty had been approached to hand over the gifts, but he'd shyly declined.

"I think it should be Ethan."

Ethan thought it should be Ethan as well but wisely didn't say so.

Little did they know Mrs Beauchamp had a present of her own to hand over.

There was also going to be money handed to the kids. Mr Keogh was going to talk them through converting their unspent Euros back into cash again, and then hand out the individual 'swag' in his class.

And finally, that afternoon there'd be a big projector in the hall and the teachers' holiday photos would be shown.

Ethan trotted to the front of the platform after the assembly.

"My, Ethan, you've got a big bag there. What's in it?"

Ethan grinned.

"Please, these are for you and Miss Freeman, and Miss Chao and Mr Keogh. For looking after us."

"Oh you little monkeys! Thank you all so much."

The other teachers involved said thank you as well except for Mr Keogh who gave a comical little bow on receiving his wallet.

"How did you manage to…"

Max looked uneasy.

"While you were helping with the ladies' stuff, I crept off two stalls down and bought yours out of the Gang Collection. I won't creep off anywhere on my own no more though."

"Any more, Max."

Max went red, realising his grammatical error. Mr Keogh was kind.

"It's a most excellent present Max, and I can throw my old one away. Dervla's been chewing it for years now. She won't get her cheeky face round this one."

Then Mrs Beauchamp, grinning, came forward carrying a big bag.

In it was a doll's or small child's chair, with a little crown on the back of it.

"I understand Snap will be attending Gang Meetings; here's a throne for him."

The kids cheered.

In her class, Miss Freeman said they could write about their time at Disney. She looked anxiously at Lofty.

"You okay with that, Ben?"

"Can I write about the ghosts in the manor, and that poor lady that never got married, instead?"

"Good idea, Ben! Why not write her a happy ending, eh?"

Ben loved the idea and created a story where the bridegroom was smarter and stronger than the evil Phantom, so that the wedding took place after all. He read it out shyly and Zax, dreaming of their own wedding one day, held hands. Robyn beamed. Her finance seemed back to normal again.

At playtime, Snap was settled on his throne and supervised the first official Zax meeting for over a week.

At lunchtime there were cup cakes with Disney characters on them. Miss Honey tried not to fuss Lofty too much, for both his and Ethan's sake. She knew how needy Ethan could be.

The kids mainly liked the photo session. Mr Keogh kept a watchful eye on Lofty's reaction. The small boy's mum's reaction to his homecoming still preyed on the teacher's mind. Was it his parents who had helped to make him feel that he was a disappointment to everybody? Ben had said he'd rather be dead than not go back to them, but kids loved parents unconditionally. He and Mrs Beauchamp had discussed Mrs Chiltern's reaction and were looking at options to help the boy next term.

Finally, at the end of the afternoon, Mrs Beauchamp had Cal and Ethan in her study, and broke the news to them as best she could, even though Cal had known this was coming. After the summer break in just under three weeks, a new school year would begin. And Cal, who would then be eight, would move up to Juniors.

Ethan reacted with tears and a tantrum.

"Now come on Ethan, you'll still be able to play with Cal at home – I mean, my house – every evening."

"Cal'll get new friends and never want me again!"

"I swear I'll not. Hey, you'll have to keep me updated about what the Gang are doing."

It was too much for Ethan, who yelled, using the baddest word he knew ever:

"I don't care about the f****** old gang if Cal's going to be with those old snobs!"

A very traumatic end to the meeting followed. Later that evening, Ethan apologised for the bad dirty word and was forgiven, but was told he needed to accept that Cal wouldn't be going back to Mixed Infants with him in September. Ethan tried, but cried himself to sleep that night.

A/N So, a bitter sweet ending to this current story which leaves issues to be resolved for the FBG's third year. Yes, sorry, people, there will be one more FBG story soon. Also, sorry it's not on a happier note right now… but things can only get better for the rogues. Something different next time but the FBG will return soon.


End file.
